To All The Boys I've Loved Before
by jazzywazzy08
Summary: Bonnie Bennett keeps her love letters in her mother's old hatbox. Not ones she's received but ones she's written to every boy she's ever loved-there are five in all. The letters are meant for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed out and suddenly Bonnie's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
1. PART ONE:BAD OMENS

**Title:** To All the Boys I've Love Before

 **Rating:** T

 **Genre:** AU/All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Tyler, Bonnie/Stefan, Caroline/Matt, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Luka, ect.

 **Summary:** Bonnie Bennett keeps her love letters in her mother's old hatbox. Not ones she's received but ones she's written to every boy she's ever loved-there are five in all. The letters are meant for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed out and suddenly Bonnie's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

 **Warnings:** All Human, Fake/Pretend Relationships, Language, Fluff, ect.

 _ **Author's Note: If you couldn't tell by the title this is inspired by To All the Boys I've Loved Before! Its closer to the book than the movie in terms of the triangle aspect and a few other details. To be honest I'm not sure that I like how this turned out to far but I was encouraged by some people on Tumblr to post so I'm posting. I am honestly nervous about this. The rating might actually change later. I haven't decided yet. I didn't want to go directly from the source material and give you guys the same scenes play by play. I wanted to make the plot by own and so hopefully it pays off. Please excuse all errors and happy reading!**_

 **PART ONE || BAD OMENS**

" _Most letters were love letters until they were not."_ **― Patricia Lockwood**

Bonnie Bennett had never had a real high school romance and she preferred it that way. Bonnie would never be the Molly Ringwald of any story. She was more along the lines of an Ally Sheedy. Not in the creepy outcast that wears all black and has enough dandruff to make it snow on a scenic sketch of a log cabin kind of way, more along the lines of being the background lead or the supporting cast of the story.

While in _The Breakfast Club_ both Claire Standish and Allison Reynolds get the guy in the end, it was very clear that Claire was the female lead. Not only was Claire the one who was coveted by all three guys at the start, she was the one who was given the most attention out of the two females, experienced the most vulnerability and the most character growth. All those things that scream lead. Lead. LEAD. Allison didn't even get the guy until she changed herself to look more like Claire towards the end of the movie. Claire was the one the girls aspired to be even until the very end.

In fact if one were to binge watch every Molly Ringwald eighties movie, which Bonnie has done multiple times, even when she was playing the outcast Molly was still the clear lead _. Sixteen Candles_ and _Pretty in Pink_ were both examples of this. Even as someone who wasn't popular she was the one the boys became interested in, the girl that was so "different" they just had to be near her and be around her. While Bonnie had never been the Molly Ringwald, she wasn't exactly the outcast either. In fact outcasts would've gotten more attention than Bonnie did. Bonnie was only the Ally Sheedy of the story on a good day.

Most days Bonnie was supporting cast. She was the best friend played by the no name actress that no one ever saw again that cheered Molly Ringwald on but never had her own story arc or character development.

However, Bonnie had never really minded this. Bonnie wasn't unpopular per se. She was a cheerleader but she didn't really hang out with them all that much outside of games and school activities. She was the girl who was sweet and talked to everyone. The girl who had cool friends but wasn't cool. The girl who would rather stay at home and watch old movies with her Grams than go to Tyler Lockwood's latest party on a Saturday night.

Her friends knew this about her and they accepted it. She was the reason that they still had slumber parties on the weekends. The reason that they went over each other's houses for dinner and had movie nights every Friday. They knew Bonnie and Bonnie knew her comfort zone and she rarely strayed outside of it. Luckily they met her half way when they wanted to hang with her, even if she didn't really see much of them otherwise. Because unlike Bonnie, both Elena and Caroline were leads.

Elena was the actual Claire Standish of the group. Cheerleader. Most popular girl in school. The girl all the guys wanted and all the girls wanted to be. She was mysterious and yet transparent, with the tragic backstory and all.

If Elena was the main protagonist then Caroline was the female antagonist, though frenemy was a better word. Caroline was the captain of the cheerleading squad, head of the spirit committee, second most popular girl in school and a blonde bombshell. So in other words she was basically just like the Caroline from _Sixteen Candles_ only, just a touch less shallow. Though, as she was dating Matt Donovan she did have the sensitive jock boyfriend thing covered.

Since Bonnie had popular friends she was semi-popular by association but she didn't really hang out with anyone else in that crowd and avoided social interaction like the plague on most days. Majority of the time she spent most days as the extra in the background with her head in a book.

But Bonnie truly didn't mind. While she loved the idea of the high school movie experience, she understood it didn't play out like that in real life. She loved the idea of the boy meets girl and the in crowd parties and the kiss on the table over a birthday cake with your ultimate crush and John Cusack standing outside of her house with a boom box declaring his love, but Bonnie could only get behind these things in theory. In practice it all seemed impractical.

Bonnie loved the idea of love as well but she knew that as at Bennett woman, love was beyond her. The Bennett women were cursed when it came to love. There was a debate about when it had started but it never ended well for people like them and the curse went back over hundreds of years.

According to the journal of Emily Bennett, that was kept in the towns archives by the Mystic Falls Historical Council, a slave who had been sold the Gilbert family and brought to Mystic Falls in the 1800's, the curse started with a woman name Qetsiyah who had been an oracle in ancient Greece and madly in love with a hero named Silas who broke her heart by taking her best friend as a lover. Qetsiyah had died of an opium overdose after murdering Silas and his lover. That's where the curse began.

Emily Bennett, had upon her arrival, been seduced by John Gilbert who had once the affair was discovered accused Emily of witchcraft to escape responsibility and she had been, as a result burned alive by the town council.

Then there was Bonnie's grandmother Sheila who had lost her husband in the war she had been protesting as a college student and found out that she was pregnant with Bonnie's mother right after he passed away.

Then there was Bonnie's mother, Abby Bennett- Wilson, who Bonnie never really spoke about or to. She'd left her father for another man only to have that same man cheat on her and leave her to raise his love child with another woman. Bonnie saw her mother's case as more of a karmic lesson than the curse but she never told anyone that.

In any case the Bennett curse made love impossible for Bennett women, but that didn't mean that Bonnie had never been in love, however. Bonnie was human and like any other girl at or around her age she had been susceptible to teenage hormones and had before that, had childhood crushes.

When her first crush came, the first crush that truly mattered, Bonnie had been twelve and she hadn't known what to do with those feelings. It wasn't until she and her Grams had watched the Jane Austen Collection together on Masterpiece Theater that a solution came.

In Jane Austen's, _Persuasion_ , Anne Elliot was talked into giving up her love for Captain Wentworth at a young age and there was a whole lot of angst when they reunited years later. The most important piece of their story, for Bonnie, was the love letter that Captain Wentworth wrote to Anne towards the end declaring his feelings. It was by far the most beautiful thing that Bonnie had ever heard. The love letter to end all love letters. She had seen the film so many times that she could quote it.

Her favorite line was. _"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever."_ Every time she heard it or read it she cried. Caroline always said it was a case of her being dramatic but a little drama never hurt anyone.

Bonnie hadn't read the book until much later but seeing the letter in print only solidified her choice of action. It seemed to her after hearing and reading that letter, there was no other real clear way to express her feelings than on paper. So Bonnie had begged her grandmother to take her to the only art store in town to pick up stationary. She had chosen paper bordered with all kinds of flowers and red envelopes because red was her favorite color. She'd even gotten a fountain pen. She had gone home and up to her room and she had written her first love letter to Tyler Lockwood, the first boy she had ever kissed.

She would write four more as the years passed. By the time she turned seventeen there were five total. One to Tyler Lockwood, the most popular boy in school. One to Luka Martin, the first boy to ever dance with her at homecoming. One to Ben McKittrick, the first boy to ask Bonnie on a date. One to Enzo St. John who Bonnie had never actually seen in person as he was a pen pal that lived in England who was assigned to Bonnie her freshman year. Their exchange of letters had been the highlight of Bonnie's freshman and part of her sophomore year. The love letter was the only letter that Bonnie had never actually sent him. The last letter was to Stefan Salvatore, the first boy that Bonnie had ever truly loved not based on fantasy but based on actually knowing him. He was also her best friend Elena's boyfriend.

The letters weren't love letters in the strictest sense of the word. The letters were more along the lines of goodbye letters. They were so that she could absolve herself of those feelings. So that she wouldn't fall victim to the Bennett curse. Once the feelings were down on paper she was no longer consumed by all-consuming love. She could let go and she could move on.

She poured her heart and soul out into those letters and then she folded them, placed them in their envelopes, sealed them and then put them in the only thing Abby Bennett- Wilson, had left behind when she had left Bonnie and her father, a red vintage hatbox. She kept them there not out of any sentimental attachment to her mother but to remind her of the curse, to remind her of what love did to people. Love left, in death or simply in selfishness as Abby had and when it left, people were broken.

Bonnie's letters set her free. She didn't revisit them. Or at least she wasn't supposed to. However, the night that Elena broke up with Stefan, Bonnie took her hatbox off of the shelf in her closet and took out her letter to Stefan. She read it again and then she took out her fountain pen and she wrote a postscript. It was her first mistake.

 **:::**

When Elena had announced to everyone that she wanted to spend her junior year abroad participating in a foreign exchange program in England, Bonnie had been the only person that hadn't been surprised. Since the deaths of her parents Elena had been wishing to escape the town's borders and experience something else. To be something other than the popular Gilbert girl with the tragic backstory. As Elena was the lead character of her own story Bonnie knew eventually she would want to write a new chapter. Still Bonnie wasn't sure what she was going to do without Elena.

Elena was more than Bonnie's friend. Elena was like a sister. She and Bonnie and Caroline had been inseparable since kindergarten. They had done everything together. Without Elena going into their junior year just felt empty.

Caroline didn't see it that way. She saw it as an opportunity. "We'll finally be out of her shadow," Caroline beamed, "I'll miss her of course but we can finally be the ones that are seen. You can finally get a life. Get out of your comfort zone because I don't care what you say, Elena is an enabler where you're concerned. Who knows you might even find your own boyfriend now that you can't be Elena's third wheel anymore?"

Bonnie hadn't argued because apart of her thought that Caroline was right. But Bonnie had no interest in any of those things. Bonnie wanted to spend her junior year with both her friends and make memories. She didn't want to send Elena off on a plane and spend her junior year mourning her friend's absence.

Even so, on Elena's last night in town, Bonnie organized a movie night and they decided to have their last slumber party before Elena's departure. Movie nights usually consisted of Bonnie, Caroline and Elena. At least they had before. However, since Caroline and Elena had started dating sophomore year, movie night consisted of Caroline and Matt, Elena and Stefan, and Bonnie.

However, Bonnie made herself get used to it. They never wanted her to feel left out, especially Stefan and Elena and so they even invited Bonnie on their dates sometimes but it always got awkward and in all honesty she hadn't liked seeing them together at first.

It wasn't that she was jealous per se, it was just that Bonnie had been the one to see Stefan first. Stefan's family had lived in Mystic Falls decades ago and had moved back when his father had inherited some old property. On his first day of school it had been Bonnie that had noticed him first. It had been Bonnie that commented on his hot back. It had been Bonnie that had showed him around school and eaten lunch with him and talked and talked and talked until the last bell. It had been Bonnie that Stefan had given his number to and that had convinced him to try out for football and that was where he had met Elena, walking Bonnie to cheerleading practice after he had prepared for football tryouts. The rest was history.

It wasn't that Bonnie didn't think they made a cute couple or anything like that. They did. It was just that Stefan was always so different around Elena than he was with her when they hung out alone. He was always so reserved and uptight and polite and distant with Elena. Elena had to beg him to dance at school dances. Elena had to work to get him to smile. Elena had to ask and ask and ask to get details about his life. He always seemed like he had to try so hard with her, which was weird since they were a couple. He was never as comfortable as he was when he was with Bonnie. Or Caroline. Or his friend Lexi that sometimes came to visit from college. Or even his brother Damon that he had a love and hate relationship with.

"That's because everyone always feels like they have to try so hard to live up to Elena's expectations," Caroline had said when Bonnie mentioned it, "She doesn't mean to do it but she puts people up on a pedestal and then when they don't live up to what she wants them to be, she pouts and whines and then they fall back in line. Its manipulation but no one wants to call it manipulation because it's Elena and she's the golden girl. Even Matt still falls for it sometimes and he's been over her for a while."

Caroline had been dating Matt almost since Matt and Elena broke up. Bonnie called Caroline and Elena frenemies because a lot of the time they didn't like one another and often tolerated each other for Bonnie's sake. Caroline felt like Elena was stuck up and conceded and Elena felt like Caroline was shallow and self-absorbed. Bonnie didn't like getting in the middle and so she never commented when one brought up faults in the other.

Even though Caroline didn't always like Elena, like Bonnie, Caroline loved Stefan. Really everyone loved Stefan. Elena's family. All of their friends. Pretty much everyone in town. He was sweet and kind and considerate and came from a good family. The definition of a well-bred southern gentlemen. There were a lot of reasons to love Stefan. If Bonnie had to say as to why Elena loved Stefan, it was because everyone else did.

Caroline was accurate about Elena and expectations to a certain extent. She liked people that fit a certain standard. Stefan lived up to everyone's standards and so she loved him for it. The only time Bonnie had ever seen them argue was when he'd fallen short when Lexi had come to town and he'd gotten so drunk at a surprise party she threw for him that he threw up in his father's cherry red 1963 Porsche on his way home. Elena had agreed with his father's assessment that he'd been an embarrassment and hadn't spoken to him for a week. Bonnie had talked Caroline and the spirit committee into organizing a carwash fundraiser at the school to get Stefan off the hook for cleaning the interior leaving it to Tiki instead and she'd brought him and Lexi one of her grandmother's herbal hangover remedies the morning after. She and Lexi had been tight ever since then.

It was true. Everyone loved Stefan. Because Caroline loved Bonnie and she also loved Stefan, but mostly because she loved Bonnie, she'd agreed to go with her to pick up snacks and food for their last movie night with Elena until Christmas.

"Listen," Caroline was saying, as Bonnie drove them to Mystic Grill, "When we say goodbye to Elena at the airport tomorrow that's it. I am not going to let you spend our junior year sulking about the fact that you are not going to spend your days trailing behind Elena."

Bonnie was only half listening because Caroline had given her that lecture before. She was trying to focus on the road. Bonnie wasn't a bad driver per se, she just got extremely nervous behind the wheel and she was also terrible at multitasking which meant talking was normally out.

Bonnie was trying to concentrate on pulling into one of the parking spaces out front but right as she was pulling into it a crow came out of nowhere and flew right into her windshield causing both her and Caroline to scream, Bonnie to swerve and the car to end up driving up past the curb. Bonnie managed to break just short of bulldozing over Tyler Lockwood as he sat at one of the tables outside.

Bonnie cursed under her breath as he looked at her with wide eyes and stood from his table. "Are you okay?" she asked Caroline.

"I'll live," Caroline muttered, "Barely."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and then sighed as she heard a tap on her window. Frowning Bonnie turned to see Tyler leaning against her car and staring at her expectantly. Bonnie closed her eyes and took a breath before pressing the button to roll the window down.

"I'm _so_ sorry," she said quickly and sincerely even as his face took on a smug expression.

"So were you trying to run me over Bennett or was the whole vehicular homicide attempt just a happy accident," he asked.

Bonnie glared at him, her remorse leaving her. "There was a crow."

Tyler blinked. "A crow? Like a crow, crow?" he repeated his expression somewhere between confusion and amusement.

"What other kind of crow would it be, Lockwood?"

"Right. Wouldn't your Grams say that was a bad omen or something? Should I run and get some salt from the table so that you could throw it over your shoulder maybe? Say a chant or blessing or whatever new age thing she's teaching you these days."

As he leaned into the car Bonnie resisted the urge to roll his head up in the window as Caroline laughed. Bonnie reached over and pinched her friend in the arm before turning to Tyler. "Are you done," she spat, "She teaches Occult studies not new age crap and just because she's a spiritualist and naturalist doesn't mean everything she says is ridiculous."

Tyler sighed the humor leaving. "I know that Bennett. She's in my mom's yoga class and has her using crystals now. It's actually helping a lot of mom's personality flaws. It was a joke," he frowned, and then, "Are you alright?"

Bonnie stared. She wasn't sure what surprised her more, Carol Lockwood using crystals or his concern for her. This was part of the reason that she and Tyler hadn't talked since middle school. He was literally a Sour Patch Kid. First he was sour and then he was sweet. Bonnie had never been able to keep up with the mood swings. Popularity had only made it worse. "I'm fine."

"Fine, fine or Bonnie fine?" Tyler asked.

Bonnie looked back and forth between Caroline and Tyler. "What does that even mean?"

Tyler shrugged. "Sometimes you say you're fine even when you're not so you won't be a bother to people. Like that time you fell out of the tree in my backyard when we were ten and pretended to be fine even though you sprang your ankle, because you knew I'd get in trouble because climbing the tree was my idea."

"You remember that?" Bonnie asked at the same time that Caroline laughed, "Oh my God! He's right you do, do that. Like all the time. Bonnie fine. I'm going to use that. Ow!" Bonnie reached over and pinched Caroline's arm again.

Bonnie turned back to Tyler. "I'm fine, fine," she muttered.

"You need me to help you get the car off the curb?" he asked.

Bonnie's frown deepened as he stared at her patiently with his stupid brown eyes with the golden flecks and his stupid chiseled jaw. "I told you," she repeated. "I'm fine."

Tyler looked taken aback by the ice in her tone and he shook his head. "Fine," he said standing upright, "enjoy the rest of your day. I'll be over here being on the lookout for the next wayward human hunting Prius."

Bonnie rolled the window back up and sat back in her seat. "Why are you always so mean to him?" Caroline said as they watched him walk away.

Bonnie didn't mean to be. She just naturally tensed up around him. Being around Tyler gave her whiplash. When they were little he was sweet and funny. He came over to help Bonnie's Grams in her garden and brought stray dogs home to nurse back to health whenever they found one wandering around their neighborhood even though the other kids had teased him and called him wolf boy for the better part of elementary when he did.

There was a reason why he had been Bonnie's first crush. They had all hung out before. He'd always been Matt's best friend and they'd all been a group. Him, her, Caroline, Matt and Elena. Back then things had been simpler; before high school, before popularity, before Tyler's father became the mayor and Tyler turned into a cocky entitled asshole that was angry more often than not.

Back then Tyler had been Bonnie's favorite person outside of Caroline and Elena. He had also been the one to throw their first boy girl party. Back then Tyler had had a crush on Matt's older sister Vicki and he'd talked everyone into a game of spin the bottle in hopes of kissing her. The bottle had landed on Bonnie instead. Bonnie had tried to give him an out but Tyler had grinned his stupid grin at her and said, "We can't cheat the bottle."

After that he'd leaned forward and kissed her. It was quick, just a peck on the lips but then he'd said, "Your hair smells like coconut. I like it," and Bonnie had been a goner.

She had been feeling self-conscious because her grandmother had insisted on making their soap and their shampoo and all of their other hair care and hygiene products. Her products were actually really amazing and smelled really good and worked better than most store name brand products. However, kids would be kids. Back then, the same kids that complemented the scents Bonnie wore or how healthy and shiny her hair looked now that they were in high school, had teased her. So Tyler complementing her had made her feel things Bonnie had never felt before.

Tyler's letter had been the first and the longest. Bonnie had forgotten all that she had written and would likely be embarrassed by it if she were ever to read it again but she remembered the feelings. She remembered the heady dizzy exciting nervous energy of her first crush. If not for having the outlet of the letter the feelings might have overwhelmed her.

However, nothing had come of it and year's later Tyler was in this on and off again thing with Vicki Donovan. They were usually only on again when she was sober and even when they were on, they kind of made each other bigger assholes than they were when they were off again and it was like this toxic cycle that Bonnie chose not to comment on for Matt's sake.

Caroline said that Tyler mostly dated Vicki to piss off his parents and because he didn't think he could ever have who he really liked, but considering he'd liked Vicki since they were kids, Bonnie doubted that very much. Besides Bonnie never cared enough to ask after Tyler's comings and goings, that ship had sailed in middle school. Though, Bonnie found out from Caroline as she straightened her car out that Tyler and Vicki were in one of their off periods due to Vicki's recreational drug use. Vicki was going into her senior year but Bonnie doubted that she would actually graduate. She often skipped town on and off and Bonnie couldn't remember the last time she'd come to school sober.

"He says he's done this time," Caroline said, "Matt is too. They're tired of taking care of her I guess. I told them both you can't really help someone who doesn't want to be helped."

Bonnie refrained from commenting as they got out of the car and headed into Mystic Grill. They had preordered all of Elena's favorites. Matt had it packed up and ready when they walked in. Bonnie was surprised as even though he worked there he normally wasn't that efficient.

"How'd you know we were here?" Bonnie asked.

Matt grinned in Caroline's direction before turning back to Bonnie. "Tyler came in right before you guys. Said he'd pissed you off and so he paid for the food. I told him he could come over to say goodbye to Elena but he said he didn't want to crash without a real invite."

"That was sweet of him right, Bonnie," Caroline smiled as she reached for Matt's hand over the counter.

Bonnie knew they expected her to give him an invite as it was at her house but she kept her mouth shut. The only one he still hung out with was Matt so she saw no point in changing that on Elena's last night. "That was nice of him I guess," she said, "Especially since I almost hit him with my car."

Matt laughed. "You what?"

Bonnie was about to respond when she looked on the receipt stapled to the back. Underneath Tyler's signature there was a detailed drawing of a crow with a speech bubble that read, " _Caw, caw, motherfuckers!"_

"Idiot," Bonnie muttered. Bonnie bit back a laugh before she showed the receipt to Caroline. "Yeah," she said, sarcastically, "Tyler's a real sweetheart."

 **:::**

That night Bonnie should have known that something was off when they all sat down to watch the movie and instead of Elena sitting in the middle of Stefan and Bonnie the way that she normally did, Bonnie ended up in the middle of the two on the couch, which was just weird.

Bonnie had looked to Caroline for answers but the blond had just shrugged from where she sat in Matt's lap in the chair on the other side of the couch. Bonnie had shrugged it off as well when the movie started. They were watching _A Streetcar Named Desire_ , Elena's favorite movie. Bonnie didn't really care for it all that much and neither did the others. In all honesty she pretty much zoned out until they came to the part where Marlon Brando screamed "Stella!" up to the balcony so she could scream along with him and laugh afterwards. Actually that was what pretty much what everyone besides Elena did.

Bonnie felt even more like a third wheel than usual as the movie progressed, Stefan kept looking over her to try and make eye contact with Elena and her friend resolutely stared straight ahead. Stefan ended up looking confused and frowning leading to Bonnie throwing popcorn at his head in an effort to make him smile which had worked. She'd even gotten a laugh as he picked popcorn out of his hair until Elena shushed them and then things had gotten awkward again.

By the time they reached the, "Stella!" scene and everyone screamed along with Brando except for Elena, who instead of giving her normal indulgent smile at their antics, rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, Bonnie knew that something was definitely wrong.

When the movie ended Matt decided to cut out early and Elena asked to talk to Stefan on the porch. Stefan agreed after hugging both Bonnie and Caroline goodnight, and kissing Bonnie on the cheek.

Bonnie watched as Elena walked them out and she and Caroline crept to the door to peek out of the curtain window at the exchange. Bonnie saw the look of confusion and devastation on Stefan's face as Elena spoke and she immediately wanted to comfort him even knowing it wasn't her place to do so. When he reached out to Elena she stepped back and Bonnie frowned.

"Something is definitely off," Caroline declared.

Bonnie nodded. "Maybe Tyler was right and the crow was a bad omen," she responded. Caroline gave her a look and Bonnie glared back. "What? You remember that time we saw a black cat crossing the road and then five minutes later Tanner got into that car accident. Omens are real Caroline."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Yeah and so is the whiskey in Ms. Sheila's liquor cabinet."

Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest. "They're more real than your highlights," she said.

"Hey!" Caroline's mouth dropped open before the two started laughing. The laughter died as Elena walked back into the house looking solemn.

They followed her into the living room and sat down next to her on the couch on either side. Bonnie frowned when Elena's spoke. "I did it," she said, "I broke up with Stefan."

"What?" Bonnie exclaimed and she looked to Caroline to commiserate her shock, but Caroline looked pleased. Bonnie ignored her in favor of Elena, "But its Stefan and you love him. He's sweet and caring and sensitive and he has that romance novel stare."

Elena looked even more miserable. "I know that Bonnie," she said, "I'll always love him. But the long distance thing never works and I just don't want to hold him back. I want him to be able to move forward. What's the point of me getting out and meeting new people and doing new things if I'm worried about everyone here standing still and waiting for me? I'm going to grow and change in England. I want that for Stefan too."

Caroline looked approvingly at Elena for the first time in what seemed like forever. "I agree with her," she said, "Stefan doesn't need to be here pining away for her any more than you need to be stopping your life and waiting for her to get back. She's going to live her life so you guys need to live yours."

"Exactly," Elena nodded, "now let's not talk about this anymore. It's supposed to be our last slumber party until I come home for Christmas. We're supposed to be having fun."

After that they ate way too much and painted each other's nails and watched _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ and played Truth or Dare. They talked about their plans for the year, though mostly Caroline and Elena talked and Bonnie listened. Like always Elena fell asleep first and Caroline soon followed.

When both Caroline and Elena were asleep, Bonnie went up to her room and took out her hatbox and pulled out Stefan's letter. When Bonnie had wrote the letter it had been right after Stefan had told her that he was planning on asking Elena out. She hadn't been all that surprised when it had happened. In all honestly by then they had been spending so much time together she had seen it coming.

However, that didn't stop Bonnie from thinking about what might have happened if she'd realized her own feelings sooner. If Stefan had chosen her instead. That was what the letter was, a long and fantastical "what if".

It wasn't that now that Elena had broken up with Stefan, Bonnie saw it as some kind of opening. In fact it was the opposite. She knew how much they loved one another and Bonnie knew how heartbroken Elena was even if she tried to hide it. The problem was that something familiar was beginning to stir inside Bonnie and she knew she had to let it out before it became too big. With Elena being gone soon it was only a matter of time before things started to get out of hand if she let them and so she wrote her feelings down instead, in a postscript beneath the letter she had written so long ago.

 _P.S._

 _I still love you. That's not really your problem, its mine. I saw your heart break tonight. I wanted to be the one to mend it. I thought I was over it, all of it. The sad thing of it all is even if I want to be the one that is there for you and makes you smile again and laugh again and happy again, I know I can't be. The only one that can mend your heart is the one that broke it. You love Elena, it's always been Elena and it always will be. So I'll be your friend and one day it won't hurt as much when you think about her and one day it won't hurt as much when I think about you._

"What are you doing?" Bonnie jumped at the sound of Caroline's voice. She had left her downstairs with Elena, sleeping in the pillow fort they had made out of the couch cushions for old time's sake.

Bonnie looked at Caroline over her shoulder as she quickly blew on the ink to dry it and folded the letter back up. "Nothing," she said as she placed the letter in the envelope and sealed it, "What are you doing up?"

Caroline's eyes narrowed as Bonnie stood and replaced the letter into the hatbox. "Your dad woke me up coming home," she said.

"He's back," Bonnie said surprised, normally when he got in from a pharmaceutical convention that late he just stayed another day, "I should go say hi."

Caroline nodded as Bonnie walked over to her. She thought about placing the hatbox back into her closet but that would only draw attention to it and cause Caroline to ask more questions and so she left it where it was on her desk and shut her bedroom door behind her.

 **:::**

The next morning Bonnie was as usual the first to get up and get ready, even though Elena was the one who had to be at the airport. Bonnie received a text from Stefan and while Elena and Caroline got ready she went out front to meet him on her porch.

Stefan was sitting on the steps looking out into the neighborhood with his customary brooding expression that made Bonnie think of Mr. Darcy from _Pride and Prejudice._ "It's too early to be making that face." She said as she came over to sit next to him.

Stefan shrugged. "You know me," he said, "it's never too early to brood."

Bonnie looked at him a moment before reaching out and taking his hand. "You can brood today," she whispered, "I won't tease you."

Stefan turned to her and frowned. "She tell you what she was planning before last night?" Stefan asked. "She tells you everything I know."

Bonnie shook her head. "She didn't tell me this."

Stefan nodded. "I'm angry and sad but I get it you know," he sighed, "I understand why she did it. Listen you and me, we're still friends right? I know she's known you longer so she should technically win you in the custody battle but I can't lose you too."

Bonnie nudged him playfully. "You're stuck with me," she said, and then, "But you know that already."

"Good old Bonbon," Stefan said doing his best impersonation of his brother, Damon, whom Bonnie could take or leave on a good day and annoyed the hell out of him on a bad day, "Always so loyal."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Why are you really here this early? I know it's not to do your best crazy eyed Damon impression."

Stefan sighed. "You know me too well," he said pulling a small box of earplugs and a pack of gum from his pocket. "For the plane," he explained, "For Elena. Her ears always pop, like the time we went to Italy with my family for New Year's. I knew Elena would forget and considering we're broken up I thought they'd be better coming from you."

Bonnie took the objects from his hand. _Always so sweet, until the very end._ She sighed. "I'm pretty sure they have these things at the airport gift shop but I'll make sure she gets them."

"Thanks Bon," Stefan said, standing, "You really are the best."

Stefan leaned down and kissed her on the cheek and Bonnie tried to ignore the stuttering of her heart as he pulled away. Stefan looked back towards the house and Bonnie knew he was trying to get one last glimpse of Elena before she left. When one didn't come, he left the way he came and Bonnie stayed out on the porch until Elena came out and joined her. She gave her the gum and earplugs. When she told her who they were from Bonnie expected a reaction. A smile. Tears maybe. There was none.

Caroline was the last one up and ready. She came out looking too chipper for someone about to see their friend off but Bonnie didn't comment. They drove to the airport, Elena's aunt Jenna and her brother Jeremy meeting them there.

Elena was only going to be gone for the school year but to Bonnie it would seem like forever. Still Elena didn't cry when she said goodbye. She didn't look back when she boarded the plane. Bonnie wasn't upset by any of it, she hadn't really expected Elena to look back. Elena had always been good at holding things in, but no one was better at that than Bonnie.

 **:::**

The first day of school without Elena passed as it normally would have. Life moved on and Bonnie shouldn't have been surprised by that but she honestly was. Things had gone on like normal. Bonnie had shown up to school in her brown combat boots, jean shorts and bohemian floral print top and as usual Vicki called her a hippy as she walked past her in the parking lot but this time instead of going towards Tyler in the quad the girl headed straight for the stoner pit much to Bonnie's surprise. _I guess they really are over_ , she thought.

Per usual Caroline was already planning the first party of the school year, for which Bonnie would likely think of an excuse not to attend also per usual. Caroline complimented her outfit. Aimee Bradley asked to borrow her boots later in the week. Bonnie had agreed in spite of Caroline's whispered, "As if anyone else could pull them off," as Aimee walked away and everyone was acting like business as usual. Bonnie had somehow thought that without Elena at the school for everyone to revolve around that the place would just stop. It hadn't, it kept going and Bonnie realized fairly quickly she would have to keep going too.

By lunch Bonnie wasn't sure what to do as she normally ate with Elena and Stefan but it felt weird eating with Stefan alone, especially given the fact that she apparently still had feelings for him.

Bonnie instead opted to eat in the library and had started to reread _Wuthering Heights_. The rest of the day passed without much incident and though Bonnie had felt slightly more isolated, she'd made it through the day and that was the most important thing.

When she had told her Grams as much when she came back to her house after school, Sheila Bennett looked less than impressed. Sheila had since Bonnie was young gone from teaching full time to part time and expanded her body and hygiene product creations and a lot of the town's people, including the kids that had teased Bonnie, now bought products from her. Bonnie often stayed over to assist and was close to convincing her Grams to open up a botanical shop so that she could live out one of her movie dreams and pretend to be Sally Owens from Practical Magic, even if they weren't witches.

"Of course you made it through school," Sheila said, "Your world doesn't revolve around Elena no matter how much she tried to make you think it did and your world shouldn't stop just because someone leaves no matter who they are."

Bonnie had sighed and measured out the right amount of ground lavender for the moisturizer that she was making to help with Sheriff Forbes' eczema that she'd promised Caroline the day before when she had been informed that Liz had run out. "I know that, Grams," she answered, "But you don't know what it's like to be friends with someone like Elena. Everyone just gravitated towards her and it was always easier when she was around because less people paid attention to me. I got to be the invisible best friend, I'm just so used to her being around that it feels weird now that she's not. Plus I just miss her."

"I'm not saying you can't miss her, Bonnie," Sheila said as she bottled up her now sought after apricot scrub, "I just don't want you to be moping around the halls like someone died. She just left for the school year and she'll be back in a couple of months for Christmas. As for the rest of it. Your days of hiding behind Elena are over. That was all fine and good when you were little and kids were still cruel and ignorant and teased you about the things that made you different. Now all of those things are things that people love about you. Things that make you shine and you don't really even realize it. It's time you stop hiding. If you're brave you may even make some new friends, experience some new things. If you keep hiding though, I guarantee that you'll alienate the friends you have left."

Bonnie knew her Grams had a point. She thought about Elena's declaration that she would be living and growing in England. Bonnie knew for a fact that Elena wasn't hiding in the library at lunch or waiting around for Christmas break so that she could hang out with her to socially interact with other people.

So the next day Bonnie put on a boho sweater dress with bell sleeves and lace above the knee and a pair of suede knee high boots and tied her hair in a messy bun with her favorite flower hair tie and went to school determined to stop avoiding her friends. She flipped Vicki Donovan off when the girl asked her if she'd gotten her hair tie at the Tree Huggers Co-op as she walked in.

She let Aimee borrow her boots from the day before and found out that sadly Caroline was right. The boots looked washed out and clashed with Aimee's outfit. "See," Caroline said, "Your style can be imitated but never duplicated. You're in a class all your own Bonnie. Own it."

Bonnie walked the halls with Caroline instead of by herself. She gave Caroline the lavender moisturizer and charged Tiki for the apricot scrub that helped with her acne scars because Bonnie didn't like Tiki and even though Tiki was nice to her because she asked Bonnie for products all the time she was still as nasty as she had been in grade school towards everyone else.

Bonnie still finished rereading _Wuthering Heights_ during free period because she needed her Heathcliff fix and to escape for just awhile on the moors. At lunch Bonnie bit the bullet and ate with Stefan. Surprisingly things were as natural between them as ever as they played "Two Truths and a Lie" while Bonnie drank herbal tea and ate the spanakopita triangles that Stefan's mother, Lily, had made for her especially and Stefan drank Mountain Dew and finished off the ginger snaps Bonnie's Grams had baked and sent to school for him.

"Okay," Stefan said as he brushed the crumbs off his hands, "Damon is attempting to join the town council to impress my father, Lexi eloped over the summer, and I missed you yesterday. Which one's the lie?"

Bonnie looked thoughtful as she considered him. "Obviously Lexi eloping," she said, "There's no way she wouldn't invite me to the wedding."

Stefan laughed. "So sure of yourself," he said, "Look whose cocky all of a sudden. But you're right of course Lexi would invite you to the wedding if she ever settled down which as wild as she is, is unlikely anytime soon, and I'd be her best person. Also of course I missed you yesterday. I kind of thought you were avoiding me."

Bonnie frowned. "I might have been," she said, "but to be fair I was kind of avoiding everyone. It's just weird without Elena you know?"

Bonnie regretted the words as Stefan's brooding expression returned. The break up was still fresh but he was handling it better than she thought he would. "Yeah I know."

Bonnie cleared her throat. "So Damon's trying to join the town council to impress your dad," she said, changing the subject, "If he wants to impress him so much why not try getting an actual job first."

Stefan grinned. "You literally say what I'm thinking. Always. This is why I keep you around," he laughed.

"Not because of my good looks and charm," she smiled, "Or my Gram's constant supply of gingersnaps."

"The gingersnaps, yes," he said, "The good looks are debatable." He laughed again as Bonnie punched him in the arm and Bonnie couldn't help but think how normal it all felt even without her best friend in the middle.

Bonnie went to cheerleading practice and this time when they asked her to hang out at Mystic Grill afterwards Bonnie actually went.

When they ran into Sheriff Forbes looking for volunteers Bonnie made it a point to help Caroline pass out flyers for the upcoming Night of Illumination.

"So I saw you and Stefan at lunch," Caroline said as they walked, "He looks awful happy for someone who just got dumped."

"Like you said," Bonnie shrugged, "he can't spend the whole school year pining. It's not like he's not sad about it, just trying to keep going just like the rest of us."

"It's good that he has you to be there for him though, right?" Caroline's tone was leading and Bonnie frowned.

"Don't give me that look," Bonnie sighed, "Stefan and I are just friends. You're the only one without enough tact to abide by the girl code and not date your friend's ex-boyfriend."

Caroline looked proud and not at all ashamed. "Matt and I couldn't be happier," she said, "Besides there's no girl code for frenemies."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Well there is for best friends," she said, "I'd never do that to Elena. We all know she still loves him and they'll probably get back together over Winter Break. Even without those factors, Stefan and I are just friends."

Caroline gave her a measured look. "Right," she said, "Well you make him smile Bonnie. You've always made him smile. Either way that's a good thing."

By the end of the day Bonnie felt less isolated than the day before and it was in that way that Bonnie developed a routine.

As the days passed Bonnie felt like she could make it through the school year without her best friend. Until the day that Bonnie found out that the crow wasn't the only bad omen she had to deal with.

 **:::**

The day of Bonnie's own personal apocalypse she had woken up to the sound of a deathwatch beetle. The same kind of deathwatch beetle that tormented the Owens women in the movie _Practical Magic_ as a sign that the men that they loved would die. Bonnie had been staying with her Grams and hadn't been over to the home she shared with her father since the day that Elena had left for England.

She'd tried to get ready for school without letting her nerves get the better of her but the incessant clicking of the beetle put her on edge and so she had been determined to look for it. She eventually found it on her window sill and she released it soon after but as she made her way downstairs she realized her search for the tiny little harbinger of doom had made her late for school.

She was so late she missed breakfast with her Grams beforehand. So late that Vicki Donovan wasn't there to insult her choice of wardrobe (a white lace crocheted top with a smocked waist, a pair of black skinny jeans, and black ankle boots with gold floral embroidery) on her way to the stoner pit. She was in fact so late that she didn't have time to stop at her locker before class and ended up ill prepared for her Trig test which was open note and open book.

Suffice to say by the time Bonnie got to her locker right before free period she was rattled and annoyed. That was when Tyler Lockwood came up to her as the halls were emptying and Bonnie was stuffing her books for her next few classes into her brown messenger bag.

Tyler was shuffling his feet and he looked nervous which was just off. He had taken to walking around school with this sort of cocky confident swagger since freshman year. It always made Bonnie want to trip him in the hall just to see what he'd do to recover from it and maybe wipe the constant smug look off his face.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Tyler asked glancing up and down the hallway.

Bonnie blinked as she shut her locker. Tyler never talked to her at school. Tyler never talked to her period. Not anymore. Maybe in passing but him approaching her otherwise was unheard of. Unless of course she almost ran him over. Bonnie twisted a curl that had fallen from her messy bun around her finger in a nervous gesture and hefted her bag onto her shoulder. Tyler stared at her expectantly. "Yeah I guess," she said.

Tyler let out a breath and Bonnie hated how good he always looked in his stupid red and black letterman jacket that literally brought all of her eighties heartthrob fantasies to mind, with his stupid broad shoulders and nervous smile that made him look more innocent than he actually was.

"Listen," he said, "I'm really flattered but I mean I kind of wish this whole thing had different timing."

"Huh?" Bonnie frowned, not following at all what Tyler was saying.

The next moment seemed to happen in slow motion. Bonnie watched as Tyler reached into the pocket of his stupid letterman jacket because he was a varsity athlete in like three different sports and pulled out a familiar red envelope decorated with hearts and flowers that had his name and address on the front in elegant script because Bonnie had even practiced calligraphy for those damn love letters that were supposed to be for her eyes only. But there she was, staring in wide eyed horror as Tyler took out the letter and waved in front of her face.

"It was a really sweet letter," he was saying, "I can't say that I've been called beautiful before but I think it's cool that you think I have gold specks in my eyes and everything. I definitely wasn't trying to steal your first kiss. It was my first kiss too if that helps anything. It's just that I just got out of this thing with Vicki…."

He kept talking but Bonnie wasn't hearing anything that he was saying. She felt sick and dizzy. _The letter_ , she thought, _how the hell had he gotten the letter?_

"Bennett are you okay?" Tyler's voice sounded far away and she barely heard him when he said, "Oh shit I forgot about the nose bleed thing."

Bonnie felt like she would die of embarrassment because she had gotten over her anxiety induced nosebleeds freshman year or so she thought. Now she was looking like some bloody pining stalker in front of the first boy she had ever kissed because of a letter he was never supposed to see anyway.

When the darkness came and Bonnie fainted, she welcomed the escape. When Bonnie next came to it was to Tyler Lockwood carrying her bridal style through the hallway, her messenger bag over one shoulder and his book bag over the other. _How was he even that strong,_ Bonnie thought. Bonnie was reminded of the closing scene of _An Officer and a Gentleman_ where Zack showed up in full uniform and gave Paula one of the best kisses in cinematic history second only to the Keith and Watts kissing lesson scene in John Hughes's _Some Kind of Wonderful_ , and then Zack whisked Paula away from the factory she worked carrying her bridal style to one of the most campy love songs ever, Joe Cocker's "Up Where We Belong". Bonnie mumbled something about Tyler having stupid broad shoulders and being no Zack Mayo before she was out again.

The next time Bonnie woke she was in one of the beds in the nurse's office and Tyler was sitting on the edge of the bed next to her. Bonnie frowned as she looked around and noted the bloody tissues in the trash can.

"Don't worry we got you cleaned up before any of it got on your blouse," Tyler said, "It's a nice blouse by the way and I like your boots too. They're kind of hot actually." Bonnie looked down to see that her blouse was still in fact as white as it was before she had embarrassed herself.

Bonnie blinked. Tyler had just complemented her. "Am I in the Twilight Zone," Bonnie asked, and then, "Or hell maybe?"

Tyler laughed, giving her that same amused and exasperated look he often did on the rare occasions they spoke and shook his head. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Bonnie answered automatically. Tyler gave her a look and she held up a hand. "If you say 'fine, fine' or 'Bonnie fine' I'll be forced to kill you."

"And miss out on this beautiful face?" Tyler shot back. Bonnie scowled and again he smiled. "I'm sorry. Look, I forgot about your nose bleeding when you get really nervous like the time you had to give that presentation in English and you passed out midsentence while talking about the hidden complexities of _Jane Eyre_ our freshman year. I wouldn't have come up to you that way if I had known I'd get a repeat performance."

Bonnie felt the urge to disappear. "Why do you remember everything that has ever embarrassed me?"

"You're cute in like that quirky kind of way so stuff like that is hard to forget," Tyler replied.

"Did you just call me quirky?" Bonnie frowned. Quirky was what the parents at school had called her Grams as a veiled insult when she showed up a PTA meetings with crystals to bring in positive energy when Bonnie was a child. It wasn't something that she wanted to hear from a boy she had once had a crush on that had basically read the contents of her soul in letter form.

Tyler shrugged. "I meant it as a complement," he said and then, "I texted Caroline and told her you were here so Mr. Saltzman wouldn't give you crap in case we're late for History next period."

"You told her what happened?" Bonnie asked, panicked, "About the letter?"

Tyler shook his head quickly "No," he said, "I told her you were a little dehydrated and you got dizzy so I brought you to the nurse."

"Good," Bonnie nodded, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Tyler said and smiled as if he had been waiting his whole life for Bonnie to be civil to him again. "Do you need anything? Water or anything?"

"I need my letter back," Bonnie said quickly, "You weren't ever supposed to see it and I need it back."

Tyler crossed his arms over his chest and his resident smug expression returned. "But it's mine," he said, "You wrote it for me right? Maybe I want to keep it." Bonnie glared before launching herself at him and tackling him to the bed. "What the hell?" he exclaimed as Bonnie began to dig through his jack pockets until she found it.

Bonnie gripped the letter with a grim look of satisfaction as she waved it in front of his face. "Ha!" She shouted and then realized that she was straddling his hips as Tyler looked up at her unbothered.

Bonnie moved to scramble away from him but froze when she heard voices. She recognized one immediately as Stefan and was relieved that there was a curtain separating them from the outside nurse's office.

"Caroline Forbes sent me here to check on Bonnie Bennett," Bonnie heard Stefan say to Nurse Fell.

Bonnie got up and peaked around the side of the curtain. She saw Stefan there looking handsome and gallant as ever coming to check in on her. She smiled until she realized what was in his hand. Another envelope with familiar writing. Bonnie felt sick again.

"No, no, no, no," she muttered to herself, "Shit, shit, shit." This couldn't be happening. _How was this happening?_ The crow had started it but the deathwatch beetle had definitely been a warning of impending doom.

It was one thing for Tyler to get his letter. But Stefan?! Stefan whom she still had feelings for. Stefan who was still Elena's even though he wasn't anymore. Stefan who she had just wrote a postscript to about how she had been pining away for him since sophomore year. Stefan who she could lose as well as Elena if any of this got out.

Bonnie began to pace and tried to think. She had to fix it or stop it or avoid it. She had to do something. "What is it?" Tyler asked looking concerned. Bonnie had forgotten that he was there. However, as she looked at him an idea began to form in her head. Bonnie heard footsteps coming closer and she knew that she had a limited window. Bonnie ran back over to the recovery bed and tackled Tyler onto it once more. "Bennett are you insane?"

In answer Bonnie kissed him. She kissed hard on the lips and it wasn't some gentle peck like their first kiss. Bonnie kissed him until she heard the footsteps grow closer. Kissed him until Tyler's mouth opened up beneath hers. Kissed him until Tyler's hands gripped her hips. Kissed him until she heard a gasp and then footsteps rapidly recede. Kissed him until she heard Nurse Fell say,"Mr. Salvatore is everything alright?" and she heard Stefan reply, "Fine. I just need to get to class before I'm late. I'll come by later."

When Bonnie pulled away Tyler looked at her with some mixture of awe and confusion. Bonnie wanted to say that she felt nothing but she couldn't. She felt the stirrings of the same dizzy excitement she had the first time they kissed and now Tyler had the honor of being not just her first kiss but her first _real_ kiss and this day had gone from messy to chaotic in a matter of minutes.

"Thank you," Bonnie said not knowing what else to say.

Tyler blinked. "Um…you're welcome?" Bonnie knew that he was going to ask more questions or maybe attempt to reject her again which was honestly unnecessary and not anything that she wanted to go through so Bonnie grabbed the letter and her messenger bag and bottled.

Bonnie ended up in the girl's bathroom, hiding out in the stall. She was there less than two minutes when she heard another voice that she hadn't heard in a while and didn't want to hear in that moment, Luka Martin.

"Bonnie?" he said, "Are you in there?" Bonnie wasn't going to answer. She was going to stay quiet but then he said. "I wasn't going to come in but you looked upset and I wanted to check on you. Come on, Bonnie, no one but you could rock those boots."

Bonnie let herself smile a moment before she came out of the stall. Luka smiled at her the same smile he had the night of freshman homecoming when he had asked her to dance and they had been the best dancers in the whole school gym and Bonnie for once hadn't felt invisible.

Luka held out the letter she had written to him, to her. A letter that Bonnie wasn't all that surprised to see considering. "I thought you might want this back," he said, "It's pretty personal and I'm not sure I was supposed to ever read it."

Bonnie smiled wider as she took the letter. Luka was as usual ever perceptive. "You weren't," she said, "I'm sorry. It was never supposed to get out. I don't know how all of this happened?"

"Don't worry about it," he said, "In the letter you were talking about freshman homecoming right?" Bonnie nodded and he laughed. "I had fun that night. You've got some nice moves Bennett, you should show them off more."

"Thanks," Bonnie said, feeling less uneasy about the present confrontation at least. "I had fun that night too."

Luka hesitated and then. "I feel like I should tell you though," he said, "You know I'm gay right."

Bonnie bit her bottom lip. "Yeah, of course," she said. She hadn't. However, she was honestly relieved by it. "I mean I wrote that a long time ago and the feelings that brought it out have definitely passed."

"Cool," Luka nodded, "We should definitely hang out though. I mean I'm out to my family and a couple of my friends but not that many people know because well…."

"High school," they said at the same time. She had been on the other end of bullying for a different reason so she understood.

"It'd be cool to have friend and someone that understood though." Luka said.

Bonnie was grateful that at least Luka's letter being released hadn't added to the maelstrom that her day had become. Bonnie and Luka exchanged numbers and then Bonnie decided that she couldn't hide in the bathroom forever and finally left to go to History class. The class that she unfortunately shared with both Tyler and Stefan.

Since Bonnie had spent her free period divided between the nurses office and hiding in the bathroom she hadn't gotten her daily fix of classic romantic literature which soured her mood even more.

Normally Bonnie sat in the desk midway in the classroom, next to Elena and Stefan sat on Elena's other side. Tyler usually sat in the back and ignored the lesson in favor of doodling in his notebook. However, Elena wasn't there any longer and her seat had begun to remain empty as the days passed. But when Bonnie walked into Mr. Saltzman's class Tyler had moved from the back seat, into Elena's seat.

Bonnie's eyes widened but she said nothing as she moved into her customary seat next to his and noted that Stefan was still sitting in his customary seat on the other side of where Tyler had stolen Elena's. Bonnie glanced at him as he leaned over Tyler to mouth, "Are you okay?"

Bonnie nodded. She frowned. She was sure that he had witnessed the kiss but he was still more concerned about her well-being than anything else.

As Alaric began his lecture on Pearl Harbor, Tyler kicked Bonnie's desk. Bonnie turned to him and glared. She was about to turn away when he held up his notebook and she saw a message scrawled on the page. " _You going to give me some answers Bennett?"_ The note read.

Bonnie looked down at her own notebook and then wrote a note back. " _About?"_ She wrote, deciding to play dumb, before leaning it up slightly for him to see.

Tyler rolled his eyes and looked unimpressed. " _The letter. The kiss."_ He wrote back.

Bonnie sighed. " _Later."_ She wrote back. Alaric turned to face them and Bonnie feigned attention before he turned back to the blackboard.

When she glanced back to Tyler, he had written. " _That's all I get?"_

Bonnie rolled her eyes this time and then wrote. " _It's the omens Lockwood. You were right I should have thrown the salt."_

Tyler grinned. _"Don't fear the omens, Bennett, be the omen."_ Considering her day was still a chaotic mess and Tyler was still kind of an asshole she supposed it could have been worse than him writing notes to her and he had as of yet kept the kiss and the letter to himself. He was actually being very human about the whole thing. Bonnie was impressed.

Bonnie wasn't sure how to even respond to the message however, and so she simply wrote back. " _Caw, caw motherfucker!"_

Instead of responding on paper, Tyler laughed out loud and drew Alaric's attention. Mr. Saltzman turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Lockwood," he said, "Ms. Bennett, are we interrupting you?"

Bonnie shook her head quickly and looked down. She glanced over at Stefan and noticed he was scowling and then glanced over at Matt who normally sat in back with Tyler and noted his eyebrow was raised and his phone was out which meant that he was likely texting Caroline. Bonnie turned back to the blackboard and sighed. She was definitely going to go back to her isolation strategy for the rest of the day.

 **:::**

For majority of the rest of the day Bonnie did just that and avoided everyone. She ate lunch in the library again and went through the motions of her last few classes with the end game of going home in mind. However, she knew there was still cheer practice and she knew that Caroline would have even more questions if she skipped.

On the bright side Caroline didn't know about the letters or anyone else outside of their recipients it seemed. All Caroline knew was that Bonnie had gotten dizzy and fainted and Tyler had helped her out which would explain them writing notes to each other in History if Matt told her that. The only thing she couldn't explain was the kiss but Caroline would never find out unless Stefan told her.

Bonnie decided the best course of action would be to act as normal as possible. So she changed into her gym shorts and a tank top for cheerleading practice and went to the football field even though she knew she would have to see both Tyler and Stefan there as the football team shared the field for practice.

Bonnie wasn't surprised to see a few people including the burnouts led by Vicki Donovan in the bleachers hanging out as she passed the football team on her way to where the cheerleaders were practicing by the track. She didn't see Tyler yet but only had a moment to be grateful before Stefan walked up to her in a wife beater and sweats stopping in his stretching in preparation for running laps and Bonnie was slightly distracted by his arms as he spoke. "Can I talk to you after practice?" he asked.

Bonnie's mouth went dry as panic began to set in. "About what?"

Bonnie watched in dismay as Stefan pulled the letter out of his pants pocket. _Why was he carrying it around with him?_ "This for starters," he said, before putting it back into his pocket quickly and looking around as if to make sure no one had seen.

Bonnie wanted to scream but decided to attempt to play it cool and avoid another nosebleed. "Don't worry about the letter," she said, "I wrote it a long time ago. It doesn't mean anything."

Stefan frowned looking skeptical. "But it mentions the breakup and that just happened," he said.

Bonnie's first urge was to bolt. She had been found out. He was going to let her down easy and tell her they couldn't even be friends anymore. He was going to tell Elena. Elena would hate her and never come back from England and go backpacking through Europe and elope with a stranger but never get over the friend that betrayed her and the man that broke her heart. Alright, maybe Bonnie was exaggerating but it wasn't too far off. She had to stop it.

"Really, Stefan," she said, "I had a little crush. Not a big deal. I just had some feelings to get out and I'm totally over it now. You know me. I get dramatic sometimes. Besides I'm kind of dating someone else now anyway."

Stefan stared. "You're what?" he frowned and then looked like he was realizing something. "Lockwood? Is that what that whole kiss was about in the nurse's office? When did that even start? You guys hardly even talk to each other. Besides you tell me everything. If not me you would have told Caroline or Elena. Not that Elena's even talking to me."

Bonnie sighed. They were back to Elena again. Still Stefan had given her an out, one she had already started to put into motion and so she decided to take it. "Yup," she said, "Its Tyler. It's fairly recent but I really like him." Bonnie tried to sound convincing and Stefan still looked like he was about to argue when Tyler walked out onto the field in all of his broad shouldered, strong jaw, beautiful cocky swagger glory wearing a sleeveless shirt, a pair of sweat pants and a bandana on his head that Bonnie might have wanted to take and keep as a love token if she'd still had a crush on him, which she _didn't_. "There he is," she beamed, trying to look convincing, "I'm going to go say hi before practice because that's what you do with boys you like. See you later. No talking necessary. Bye."

Bonnie walked away before Stefan could respond and then began to run towards Tyler. She wasn't sure why she was running or what the hell she was doing really aside from trying to stop the doom the omens had predicted which honestly wasn't working out really well for her at all. She should have paid more attention when she had listened in on her Grams' lecture on how pagans used to ward off evil and negative energy. While they didn't believe in all of the occult theories they were spiritual and if Bonnie had been smart she would have grabbed one of her crystals before leaving the house, instead of chasing a deathwatch beetle that morning.

However, Bonnie wouldn't describe any of her behavior that entire day as smart which would explain why as she was running she yelled, "Hey, Lockwood!", loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the near vicinity which turned out of to be a lot of people including her friends.

Bonnie later blamed it on the sheer number of romantic movies she had watched and the sheer volume of romantic novels she had read, both campy and classic. It happened kind of like a scene out of a movie or like a train wreck that she would regret later. Bonnie wasn't really sure which. But suddenly it felt like she was running towards Tyler in slow motion. If she had to pick song for that moment she would have gone with "If You Leave" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (an unnecessarily long band name that wasn't as poetic sounding as they thought it would be from Bonnie's perspective) which played over the third best kiss in cinematic history between Andie and Blane at the end of _Pretty in Pink_.

However, Bonnie wasn't a lead so it made no sense that she would hear that song playing in her head in that moment, or any other song because this was Tyler Lockwood that Bonnie was launching herself at. Tyler Lockwood that caught her as if Bonnie jumping into is arms like some deranged maniac or like Allie did with Noah in the kiss scene from _The Notebook_ , the fourth best kiss in cinematic history, was an everyday occurrence. It was Tyler Lockwood's neck that she wrapped her arms around and his waist that she hooked her legs around. It was Tyler Lockwood that looked at her like she was some kind of enigma as he smiled and murmured, "What the hell, Bennett?", as Bonnie leaned forward. It wasn't the boy that she actually liked, it was just Tyler Lockwood. But in that moment as Bonnie kissed him, she felt for the first time like a leading lady.

Before that day Bonnie had only ever had one kiss, her first kiss, with Tyler. Now she'd kissed the same boy twice in one day in front of the boy she was actually in love with, her best friend's ex-boyfriend and once in front of more people than Bonnie had actually realized until the catcalls rang out and Bonnie jumped down and attempted to act normal even though she felt like she might throw up.

"Have a good practice," Bonnie said calmly and then sauntered over to the rest of the cheerleading squad as if there wasn't a crowd watching including Stefan and Tyler's ex-whatever the hell Vicki had been. As if she kissed boys every day. As if she hadn't just confused the hell out of Tyler Lockwood even more. As if she were Tyler Lockwood himself, cocky, confident and completely full of herself. Bonnie was sure she was going crazy.

When she got to the other girl's, Caroline approached her first. "I don't know what the hell that was and you are definitely going to have to spill later but I have never been more proud of you than I am at this very moment."

After practice Bonnie ran. She knew the guys were in the showers and Caroline was momentarily distracted by some of the other girls. She saw her out and she took it. Bonnie took off like a bat out of hell, grabbing her bag and her clothes not bothering to change as she ran to her car, all of her nerves about driving taking a back seat to her instinct to flee as she sped out of the parking lot and to her father's house.

When she pulled into the driveway Bonnie cut the car off and ran inside. She ignored her dad's calls as she ran upstairs and to her room. She frowned as she saw that the hatbox she had left on her desk the night Elena had left was gone. Bonnie ran around the room tearing it apart and throwing objects here and there. She looked under her bed and her desk and in her closet. It was no use. It was gone.

Bonnie startled when her dad opened the door and stood in the doorway. Rudy looked at her worriedly. "Bonnie are you alright? Nurse Fell called and said something about you fainting at school."

"I'm fine," she said, mechanically.

"Fine, fine or Bonnie, fine?" her dad asked.

Bonnie froze shooting Rudy an accusatory look. "Have you been talking to Tyler Lockwood?" she asked.

Her father shook his head. "Caroline," he answered and then, "She mentioned the crow story the night of your sleepover. Should I ask why you're tearing up your room or…?"

"Have you seen my hatbox?" Bonnie asked, "The red vintage one with the gold clasp. The one mom left behind?"

Rudy shook his head. "No," he said, "Not that I can remember but since I've been home the last couple of days I've been doing some spring cleaning while you were at your Grams. I sent some stuff to Goodwill. It might have ended up in one of those boxes."

Bonnie's face crumbled. "Oh my God," she felt like she might cry, "The omens were right. I'm doomed."

"Is that some of that spiritualist stuff Sheila's always going on about," Rudy frowned, shaking his head, "Listen I'm sorry if it meant that much to you. I should have waited until you got home to let me know what you wanted to keep. I can take you to the antique store in town. I'm sure they'd have another hatbox you could keep stuff in."

Her father kept talking but Bonnie wasn't listening. Bonnie wasn't listening because the letters were out. Bonnie had kissed Tyler Lockwood. Bonnie had lied to Stefan. Bonnie's secrets had been found out. Bonnie had fallen victim to the Bennett curse even though she had never actually had a boyfriend and had done so much to guard herself against it. She hadn't listened to the omens. The letters were out and Bonnie was screwed.

 _ **End Notes: So there it is, the first part! Hope you all are enjoying it so far. So I will likely go back and edit this but please tell me what you think you guys! Reviews help more than you know! Until next time! Thanks for reading!**_


	2. PART TWO: REWRITE

**Title:** To All the Boys I've Love Before

 **Rating:** T

 **Genre:** AU/All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Tyler, Bonnie/Stefan, Caroline/Matt, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Luka, ect.

 **Summary:** Bonnie Bennett keeps her love letters in her mother's old hatbox. Not ones she's received but ones she's written to every boy she's ever loved-there are five in all. The letters are meant for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed out and suddenly Bonnie's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

 **Warnings:** All Human, Fake/Pretend Relationships, Language, Fluff, ect.

 _ **Author's Note: Thanks for all of the love in the reviews! You guys are amazing! I usually have a hard time getting the length and all but in this fic I am having trouble to stop writing. It's been very fun for me and so I hope you continue to enjoy it in spite of my ever-present insecurities. Anyway I am amending the no kissing rule! Lol. Also I am going to stray from the source material at this point a lot more after this chapter because I want to make this story my own! Sorry for any mistakes! Happy reading!**_

 **PART TWO || REWRITE**

"" _To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written."_

― **Jean-Jacques Rousseau**

Majority of the movies that John Hughes released in the eighties were set in the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois at Shermer High School. It was a place that Bonnie Bennett had dreamed of visiting before she realized that it didn't actually exist. Even as a fictional town Bonnie had always been fascinated with the depiction of the small town high school life. Bonnie had also always been obsessed with the potential crossovers due to the sheer number of times Molly Ringwald's fictional counterparts would have run into one another, while existing in the same world and the same school, alone.

John Hughes had based the town on his own hometown of Northbrook. People who didn't understand Hughes's genius would say that he basically wrote the same movie over and over again. Bonnie had never seen it that way. The way that Bonnie saw it, John Hughes was trying to rewrite his own high school experience over and over and over again until he got it right. The motivation behind that was simple. It was the same reason that people had flocked to the theaters to see his movies when they came out. The same reason that they were considered classics in the first place and were the standard for every high school based film that ever followed. It was because high school fucking sucked. It was terrible, but also four whole years of your life that you constantly looked back on and everyone, no matter who they were or what their background, wanted that perfect high school experience. They wanted that chance at a rewrite.

John Hughes had depicted the high school experience so well, he had mastered not just his own rewrites but the rewrites of a million high school students in so many different generations. Those movies were classics because they got the high school experience down to a science. The good, the bad and the ugly. The romantic and the mortifying. Even though they were released in the eighties those movies were still surprisingly true to form over twenty years later.

Bonnie had always wanted her own chance at a rewrite. Bonnie got that chance on the day that the omens came, though it wasn't something that Bonnie realized until much later.

In that moment as she realized that her hatbox was missing and all five letters were out, Bonnie wanted to be the one that was gallivanting across Europe and meeting hot guys with accents. Though, she wasn't sure that that was what was happening with Elena. She hadn't talked to her friend since the day she left and as Bonnie had not only sent a love letter to Elena's ex-boyfriend but she had kissed Tyler Lockwood to avoid confronting her feelings for Elena's said ex-boyfriend, Stefan Salvatore, she suspected she wouldn't be speaking to Elena any time soon.

Bonnie's only solace was that she had already dealt with three out of the five letter recipients and Enzo was all the way in England and so unless he crossed paths with Elena she doubted that she'd have to confront him any time soon, if at all. The thing was, because of her rash behavior, she still wasn't done dealing with Stefan or Tyler either.

Bonnie wasn't sure what to do and so she decided to go to Mystic Grill to drown her sorrows in a triple chocolate sundae. Bonnie's grandmother was on a cleanse but she was not. It didn't occur to her until she arrived that the Grill was too common of a hangout for her to lay low in. Still, even as she walked in and saw the regular after school crowd, she held her head up and brazened forward. She walked towards a booth in the back as far away from prying eyes as she could manage and prayed to those that had left them behind for the spirit world that no one would approach her.

If anyone were to ask her about the spectacle that she'd made out of herself on the football field that day, Bonnie wasn't sure about what her answer would be. She'd already been dodging calls and texts from both Caroline and Stefan and she was resolved not to speak to either until she figured out what she was going to do.

Bonnie opened her menu but before she could even order she was approached by Jeremy Gilbert of all people. Bonnie raised an eyebrow at him as he stood in front of her table. They really didn't speak and hadn't hung out outside of group things and the time that Bonnie spent at the Gilbert home when Elena was still around. He was kind of like Bonnie's younger brother by extension only like a younger brother that she didn't really talk to or particularly get along with. She didn't dislike him either, Jeremy was just, well Jeremy. He was like Duckie Dale from _Pretty in Pink_ , sweet, weird, eccentric fashion sense and the best kind of outcast that would in all likelihood live and die in the friend zone.

Still Bonnie felt like she had to be nice to him, not just because of him being Elena's brother, but because even though she wasn't talking to Elena, that didn't mean Jeremy wouldn't be. She had to be careful and play her cards right until she figured out what she was going to do or came up with a plan to steal her dad's credit card and run away to a foreign country.

Bonnie smiled as Jeremy hovered over her table, shuffling his feet uncertainly. "Hey, Jere," she said, "What's up?"

"Hey," Jeremy responded, giving her a relieved smile back, "Can I sit?"

Bonnie hesitated but eventually nodded. She didn't want any company. She wanted to drown her sorrows in ice cream but she would deal just this once. "Sure," she said and then tacked on, "Not long though. I'm waiting on someone." It was a poor excuse but the best one that she could come up with and she hoped that he would leave before he caught on that she was lying.

"You're meeting Tyler Lockwood, right?" Bonnie's eyes widened, though she probably shouldn't have been surprised. Of course he would make that assumption. She'd kissed Tyler in front of entirely too many people during football and cheerleading practice. Even if Jeremy hadn't been there, Mystic Falls High School was like any other high school. When crazy things like Bonnie Bennett losing her mind and kissing the most popular guy in school happened, word got around fast.

Bonnie didn't confirm or deny the assumption. She looked down at the menu in her hands and frowned.

Jeremy moved to sit down in the booth next to her and clearly misinterpreted her look of distaste to, not the subject of conversation but having to talk about it with him. "Look," he sighed, "I know that to you, I'm just Elena's kid brother. It's probably weird to talk to me about things like this. Especially with Elena gone. But I have to tell you, what you did today was the bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do like ever."

Bonnie stared. "Huh?" Her look of discomfort turned into one of confusion. Bonnie didn't have the heart to tell him that her act of bravery was more so an act of stupidity. She was confused by why he'd perceive it as brave to begin with.

"Come on Bonnie. You went right up to the guy that you liked and kissed him in front of everyone. You, who has never even had a boyfriend. If that's not brave I don't know what is." Bonnie winced. Jeremy leaned back into the booth as he continued. "I can't even talk to the person that I like and with the way that things are going I don't really have anyone to talk to that knows the real me, now that Elena's gone. I figured that you and I are in the same boat in that respect at least."

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah I miss her," she said and then frowned as Jeremy sighed, "What do you mean you can't talk to the person that you like? I thought you and Anna were really close."

Jeremy shrugged. "Anna's cool," he commented, "A little weird with the whole home school thing and kind of clingy. She's a good friend though."

Bonnie caught on to what he wasn't saying fairly quickly. "But not who you like," she said. When Jeremy nodded, Bonnie leaned forward and asked, "Who is it then?"

Jeremy bit his lip and looked more nervous than Bonnie had ever seen him. "I'm telling you this in confidence because you're Elena's best friend and she trusts you more than anyone," Bonnie grimaced at the thought of Elena trusting her as he continued, "I know that I can trust you too, which is why I need to swear you to secrecy."

Bonnie nodded her face serious. "I won't tell a soul," Bonnie said, "I swear by the name of the triple goddess."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "Right," he nodded, "Pagan spiritualist thing." Bonnie nodded and he continued. "That's good enough for me." Jeremy took a deep breath and then he whispered. "The person I like is Luka Martin."

Bonnie's eyes widened. Jeremy and Luka?! Bonnie had just befriended Luka and since she'd discovered her once crush was actually very gay, the more she thought about it, Jeremy and Luka would be cute. Besides that she could so befriend them both and then play matchmaker like the title character Emma Woodhouse, from Jane Austen's, _Emma_. Though, Bonnie would so be the Kate Beckinsale version and not the Gwyneth Paltrow version as that version was as annoying as Gwyneth Paltrow herself. The Romola Garai version hadn't been bad but honestly if Bonnie had to pick she would go with Alicia Silverstone's, Cher, from _Clueless_ , which though not many people realized it, was inspired by Jane Austen's _Emma_ in the first place. Either way Bonnie would be a matchmaker, a more successful one of course, and at the very least Jeremy's love life wouldn't end up somehow both screwed up and nonexistent at the same time, like her own.

"Bonnie would you say something?" Jeremy cut into her thoughts and she could tell he was thinking that her silence was some sign of rejection.

"You and Luka would be adorable," Bonnie said, smiling, "He'd be lucky to have someone like you."

"You think so?" Jeremy asked, and then, "You don't…I mean you're not weirded out by the whole gay thing."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "My Grams plans on chanting naked in the backyard when the leaves start to change to welcome the autumn," Bonnie said, "I know weird. You being gay isn't weird Jeremy. Neither is you liking Luka. He's a sweet guy."

Jeremy laughed. "Yeah he is."

"So," Bonnie said, "Why can't you talk to him?" Bonnie was surprised that the conversation was actually a welcome distraction from her own garbage.

"He's Luka Martin," Jeremy said as if that answered it all, "He's smart and funny and sweet. He wants to be a botanist and he's in line with all of these environmental causes. He's also got amazing fashion sense. Even if he were gay, what would he want with a guy like me? I'm just some weird sophomore who likes to draw and used to hang out in the stoner pit and finally got out of is Goth phase like a whole year after it stopped being cool."

"You have a lot to offer anyone," Bonnie said. She could already feel her brain working as a plan formed. "Listen," she said, "this Friday I'm hosting my movie night. First one without Elena, so it'll be a little weird but it'll be fun. Luka and I are friends now so I'll invite him over, you can come over too. We'll all hang out like a group thing. It'll be no pressure. You can test the waters a little and see what happens."

Jeremy's eyes widened. "Seriously?" he asked, "First of all I've been wanting to go to movie night since you started them when I was in my last year of middle school and secondly even hanging out with Luka in a group is more than I could have ever hoped for. You're the best Bonnie. I know Elena was always saying that but you really are."

Bonnie smiled and then shook her head. "You don't have to pretend you wanted to go to movie night," she said, "The thank you is enough."

"What are do you mean? I'm not pretending." Jeremy looked offended she'd even suggest it.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Even my actual friends, think that it's lame," she said seriously, "I highly doubt that anyone would want to come if I didn't force them."

Jeremy was looking at her strangely and then he shook his head. "You really don't get it do you?" Jeremy smiled, "Elena always said you never realized the effect you have on people but I thought it was a best friend thing and not a real thing. She was right. Listen, Bonnie…they _love_ movie night. Elena, Caroline, Matt and Stefan. They all love it. They always have. They tease you about it because you get really into it and you're like a movie guru, but I mean none of us come from normal family's or have ideal backgrounds. Matt's mom is in and out of town and Vicki is Vicki. Caroline's mom is always working late shifts and never home. She never sees her dad anymore since he came out. Those movie nights and those dinners you invite them to, have saved them from having to eat at home alone on more than one occasion. Stefan's parents are practically stiffer than the bodies at a morgue and they don't approve of Lexi so those movie nights are the only nights he could get away with seeing all of his best friends and not having to deal with anyone else's expectations. After our parent's died our whole world was shattered, but those movie night's happened every Friday like clockwork and it got Elena back into a routine and it made her feel like she hadn't lost all of her family because she still had you guys. They did the same thing for Caroline when her parents got divorced. Those movie nights are like the normal in the chaos. They don't just do it for you Bonnie, if anything you're doing it for them. They mean more than you think, so of course I always wanted an invite."

Bonnie wasn't sure what to say. All that time she'd thought that the movie nights were just an inconvenience her friend's put up with because she was basically anti-social and never wanted to go out and do things or go to parties. She was sure that there were so many other things they'd rather be doing on a Friday night. However, the more that Bonnie thought about it, _really_ thought about it, she knew that Jeremy was telling the truth.

"Well," Bonnie said, "Even if this whole Luka thing doesn't pan out. Consider yourself officially invited to movie night from now on."

Jeremy beamed at her and to her surprise, even leaned forward to give her a hug. "Thanks Bonnie. It means a lot. I didn't realize how alone I was without Elena." He stood soon after and Bonnie was about to ask him why he was leaving when she saw Tyler Lockwood heading towards them carrying a chocolate shake in one hand and the triple chocolate sundae that she hadn't even had the chance to order in the other. Bonnie blinked. "I'll leave you to it then," Jeremy winked. He began to move away from the table but stopped to turn around at the last minute. "I'm not the only one who's been wanting an invitation to movie nights, Bonnie." He said before he turned and gave Tyler a nod.

Tyler nodded back as he took the seat that Jeremy had vacated next to Bonnie and Jeremy walked over to the pool table in the corner where Anna was waiting.

Bonnie felt as if her stomach was in her throat as Tyler slid into the booth next her and placed the sundae in front of her and the milkshake in front of himself. He began to talk as if they were already in the middle of a conversation. "I told everyone that you had a family emergency so it wouldn't seem weird that you ran off like a crazy person after practice. Just in case anyone asks." Tyler unwrapped the silverware on the table from the napkin and placed a spoon in front of Bonnie. "You want to tell me what's really going on, Bennett?"

"Why are you buying me ice cream?" Bonnie frowned, "Better yet, why are you covering for me?" Bonnie knew that there was an ulterior motive in there somewhere. There had to be.

"Normal people would just say thank you, Bennett," Tyler commented before taking a long pull from his straw. When Bonnie continued to stare he sighed. "I know you better than you think," he said, "Ice cream always helps when you're upset and even if it was a shot in the dark, you're a girl so like that'd be true either way. Anyway, you may not be upset now but you will be when I have to reject you again because _clearly_ the first time didn't take."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and took a bite of her ice cream. "Thanks for the ice cream but the rest isn't really necessary," she said.

"Listen," Tyler continued as if she hadn't spoken, "Just so we're clear, I'm flattered but this whole back and forth thing with me and Vicki just ended and-"

Bonnie slid the spoon out of her mouth and turned to face Tyler completely. "Tyler Lockwood," she said seriously, "I am not trying to date you."

Tyler didn't look at all convinced. "See your mouth is saying one thing but earlier today your mouth was saying _another_ thing. Twice. So forgive me if I'm not buying what you're selling, Bennett."

Bonnie groaned and took another bite of her sundae. It was making the conversation bearable at least. Triple chocolate had saved the day again. "Okay," she said, "Look I don't actually like you in that way or any way really. I just had to make it look like I liked you so the person that I actually like didn't think that I liked him."

Tyler frowned. "It wasn't Gilbert was it?" he asked, "I mean I just saw you guys talking and if it was I think you should probably know he's gay."

Bonnie scowled. "It wasn't Jeremy," she said, "He's Elena's little brother. That'd be kind of weird. And you don't know that he's gay?"

Tyler rolled his eyes that time. "Everyone knows that. He doesn't think they do but they do."

Bonnie didn't comment as Jeremy had clearly been under the impression that only a few people had known being herself and Elena. She wasn't going to confirm what Tyler said and out him without his knowledge or permission. "Anyway," Bonnie cut in, "I don't like you, so you don't have to worry about me kissing you like ever again. Ever. In life."

Tyler sipped his milkshake unbothered. "So who's this guy you're trying to throw off your scent then?"

"What?" Bonnie had heard him but wasn't sure why he thought that him buying her an ice cream sundae would lead to some sort of confessional.

"The _guy_ ," Tyler repeated. "Who is it? I mean, you roped me in on this starting with that letter and so the least you could do is tell me who this guy is."

"No." Bonnie said before picking up the cherry off her sundae and eating it.

"Come on, Bennett," Tyler pressed, "You're going to have to tell me who this mystery stud is or I'm just go to go on believing that you built a shrine for me in your room out of those crystals you love so much and you have a secret tattoo of my face on your ass. _Or_ I could tell the whole school about the letters."

"You are the worst kind of person." Bonnie gave him a death glared. "Fine." Bonnie knew that he wouldn't let up and so she finally caved. Besides that, a part of her wanted to talk to someone about it and get everything off her chest. "I didn't intentionally rope you into anything," she said, "Yes, this started with the letters-"

"Wait, hold on," Tyler interrupted, "Letters. With an 's', as in plural."

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah," Bonnie shrugged, "There was yours obviously but then Stefan got his too and so you can see where the problem started-"

"Stefan Salvatore," Tyler balked, "Mr. Perfect. Elena's ex-boyfriend. Your best friend Elena. Yeah, I could see how that'd be a problem. So not only did you write a love letter to two guys-"

"Five-" Bonnie cut it.

Tyler's eyes widened. "Five?!" He looked as if he were seeing Bonnie for the first time. He looked away as if talking to himself. "You think you're special and the girl writes not one or two but _five_ letters. You're not as innocent as you look, Bennett."

Bonnie took another spoonful of ice cream. "It's not like that," Bonnie spat, "I just….I wrote them years apart starting with yours. They were just to guys I'd had crushes on. It wasn't a big deal. It was just a way to get my feelings out and move on from them. No one was ever supposed to see them. Not you or any of the other people. Someone, I'm not sure who, found them and sent them out. Out of all the letters, Stefan was the only one who got one that I still had feelings for and so you see why I had to make him think otherwise. Elena's is gone now but she's coming back for Christmas and then for good at the end of the school year. She still loves Stefan and also Stefan's my friend. I don't want to lose either of them, which is why I hid my feelings in the first place. Now that they've gotten out I had to fix it and so I used you to try and do that. I'm sorry."

Tyler shrugged. "I've been through worse things than kissing you," he grinned, "I'll live." He looked at Bonnie for a long time and then. "Only you would see Elena leaving as a reason not to go after what you want and not as an opportunity. But I get it. You're a way better person than me, but I get it. So who else did you send the letters to?"

Bonnie bit her lip and then answered. "Luka Martin."

"He's also gay you know." Tyler looked amused and Bonnie wanted to tip his milkshake into his lap. "He's a friend of mine so that's how I know. I'm sure you didn't know that when you wrote it but just in case you thought about going down that road, I thought I'd give you the heads up."

Bonnie chose not confirm or deny anything about Luka's sexuality either and continued to go through her list. "Ben McKittrick."

"He's an ass and he's also broke and a has been and you're like way out of his league." Tyler said casually.

"He's not that bad," Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "I think that last thing might have been a complement to me so thanks I guess," she said, "Lastly there was my pen pal Enzo but he lives in England and that was never going to be a thing anyway."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he popped up here honestly," Tyler said half-jokingly, "Hop on a plane like one of your romance novels and declare his undying love. You write one hell of a letter. You made _me_ feel special."

There was a sarcastic edge to his voice. "Just shut up and drink your milkshake."

Bonnie had walked to Mystic Grill and so Tyler had offered to give her a ride home. They left just as soon as Vicki came in to start her shift and Bonnie didn't think that that was unintentional.

When Tyler pulled into Bonnie's driveway, he walked around to the other side of the car to open the door for her as she got out. Bonnie wasn't sure what to make of the gesture but took his hand as he helped her out of his 1971 black Buick anyway and was reminded of the scene from _Pride and Prejudice_ when Darcy helped Elizabeth into the carriage in a surprise gesture as she was leaving Pemberley.

Tyler went as far as to walk her to her door, which was just strange. "So," he said as they walked, "What are you going to tell Salvatore?"

Bonnie shrugged as they descended her porch steps. "I don't know. The truth I guess."

"Which would be?" Tyler asked, "Do you like him? Would you date him if you had the chance? If Elena wasn't an issue I mean."

Bonnie wasn't sure why he would even ask. "Why do you care?"

"I don't," Tyler said, looking down with that stupid innocent expression he'd had been wearing when he had come to her locker and upturned her world. "I was just thinking….maybe you don't have to tell him the truth. Maybe we could just let him believe we're together. Maybe even let everyone else believe it too."

Bonnie almost considered it before a thought occurred to her. "I would be getting out of this whole mess with Stefan so it'd help me out of a fix. But what would you even offer? What's in it for you?"

Tyler sighed. "Vicki keeps trying to get back in with me even though she's dating this older guy that goes to Whitmore and I'm just tired of it you know," he frowned. "We were never even really dating. We were just in this codependent thing where we hooked up over and over and took out all of our crap on each other. She wanted to date. To be official but the way she is… with drinking and the drugs….I wanted her to get help first and that's not what she wants. Anyway, I need to cut ties. I'm thinking if maybe she sees me with another girl, doing all the boyfriend and girlfriend stuff she always wanted but never got from me, she'd believe it was really over. I don't want to hurt her but I feel like she needs to get the message. The cycle needs to stop."

"So you want to use me as a pawn," Bonnie clarified even though she knew she was the pot calling the kettle black in that moment.

"You did the same thing to me first." Of course Tyler would call her out on it.

Bonnie looked at him a long moment before shaking her head. "Lies got me into this and telling more lies is only going to make things worse."

Tyler looked disappointed but nodded. "Just think about it, Bennett," he said before he left Bonnie alone on her porch.

 **:::**

 _Dear Tyler,_

 _I've never felt this way about a boy before. I've never really wanted to either. I wish that I could hate you. Not hate you like teasing you, like the time you tripped over your own feet when you were trying to look cool while playing basketball with Matt whenever Vicki was watching. Not hate you like refusing to laugh at your stupid jokes or eating the last chocolate chip cookie in the batch my Grams made because I know they're your favorite. No. Those things I never did out of hate. Not really. I did them to keep myself from liking you so much. It didn't work._

 _Did you know that you were once my favorite person? Not because you're nice to Matt even though your mother calls his family trash. Not because you rescue all the neighborhood strays and help Grams in her garden when her hands or her back hurts and she doesn't want to admit it. Not even because you like the way that my hair smells._

 _You were my favorite person because you took the time to know me. Really know me. You're the first person who did that outside of Elena and Caroline. You can tell me my favorite color. My favorite food. You let me cry on your shoulder when my mom left and you didn't tell anyone or make a big deal about it. You've never made me feel different, just special. Like the time when I tried to wear heels to our first school dance in middle school and I kept falling trying to walk in them and you held my hand the whole night so no one would notice and when the dance was over you carried me on your back when I took the shoes off because my feet hurt too bad._

 _You always thank me when I do things for you and you never expect anything in return when you do things for me. There's a lot I like about you. Or rather a lot I liked, about the old you. I liked so much about who you were but you've changed and I know you well enough to know that there's a reason but you've stopped talking to me so I can't even ask._

 _I wish I could hate this new you. This you with the cocky attitude that thinks he's so cool. This you that smiles and flirts with all the girls at school just because you can. This you that thinks EVERYONE loves you. This you that's arrogant and that can be so mean sometimes I don't even see the real you underneath anymore. This you that's good at everything and still tries to be better and WIN, WIN, WIN as if there's nothing else in the world that matters. This you that can be so stiff and angry sometimes I feel like if you could you would just shut the whole world out and I would never be able to reach you. This you that doesn't look at me anymore. This you that looks at other girls and never really sees me. This you that makes me want to pull my hair out or scratch up your stupid face or find a curse in one of my Grams' occult books so I can finally put you in your place, not just for who you've become but for making me feel this way about you._

 _Because I don't hate you Tyler. I can't. Not after that stupid kiss. That kiss that made me love you after vowing never to love anyone. Did you know I would love you when you kissed me? Did you know that you would make something in me come alive that no one ever had before? Did you know that saying something so simple and such a small kiss would lead to me wanting to kiss you again and again and again until I can't breathe? Sometimes I think that you did. Sometimes I think that you sat around with Matt and talked about it and laughed. Sometimes I think you just kissed me to get a rise out of Vicki. Why else would you have kissed me?_

 _That's the thing that I don't get about you Tyler. You kissed me for no reason. It was nothing to you. My first kiss was supposed to be special. Stupid me, for a while I thought that it was. I thought that you liked me too. I thought that maybe we could have all of those things I've always read about, lightning bolts and fireworks. I thought about you a lot actually. So long and so hard that I had to write this. I've thought about you so much that it scared me. I thought about how your laugh sounds like music. I thought about how you have such a great smile. I thought about how you give the best hugs because you've always been so much taller and broader than me even when we were really little and when you hugged me that day that I cried on your shoulder I felt like I was being wrapped in a warm blanket. I thought about how close up you're not so much handsome as beautiful. I thought about the gold flecks in your eyes and how soft your lips are. I've been consumed with thoughts of you all because of that stupid kiss that to you was nothing but for me should have been everything._

 _I've thought about my first kiss longer than I've thought about you in any way besides as a friend and sometimes nuisance. I've imagined what it would be like. It was supposed to be magical. You stole that from me. You stole something that should have been special and perfect. You stole something that wasn't supposed to be yours because you don't love me and you not only stole it but you made me love you._

 _You've gotten to be all my firsts so far. The first boy I ever considered a friend. The first boy I ever kissed. Now you're the first boy I've ever loved. Do you know what it's like to love someone so much you can't stand it and know that they'll never feel the same way? Probably not, my family is cursed by that kind of love and I'm not sure why I thought that I would be different. Maybe, I just thought that you would be different. That you wouldn't ignore me after being the first person to ever see me too._

 _I know that you'll never read this and it wouldn't mean anything to you if you ever did but these things are the last firsts you'll ever get from me. You're the first boy I've ever written a love letter to. The first to make me feel something so big and so strong that I had to write it down just to let it out or I would burst. You get to be that first. But you're also the first boy that I will ever let go of. The first boy to break my heart without even knowing you did it in the first place. The first boy that I'll ever say goodbye to. Because after this letter is signed and sealed, all of those big feelings will be sealed away with it and when I look at you I won't see my favorite person anymore or any of those firsts. When I look at you, you'll just be Tyler Lockwood. Matt's best friend. The mayor's son. Just some boy I used to know._

 _In all the books I've read and all the movies I've seen, love has been steadfast and undying. They hold on to the end like Captain Wentworth who pined for Anne Elliot for years in Jane Austen's Persuasion (which you would never watch or read because you're not as cultured as your mother likes you to pretend you are). In his letter to Anne he used words like "constancy" and "undeviating". I can't understand how you could hold on to something that brings you pain. Captain Wentworth answered that question when he said he was "half agony, half hope". He had hope and I have none. All I have is a lot of firsts and nothing to show for it besides these a few pages, ink and the knowledge that you, Tyler Lockwood, maybe never really knew me at all._

 _I'm relieved I think. To let you go and save some firsts for someone who really matters. But I'd like to thank you Tyler for showing me I could feel this way at all. Thank you for letting me love you from afar and thank you for making it easy for me not to anymore._

 _Love,_

 _Bonnie Sheila Bennett_

Bonnie refolded the letter, replaced it into the envelope and then stuffed it into the pocket of her robe. Bonnie wasn't sure why she decide to read the letter. She hadn't remembered what she'd written after she wrote it. She hadn't remembered how close they were and how well Tyler used to know her. She'd done what she'd promised and let go. Revisiting all of those feelings that she'd had before didn't bring her clarity but for once she wasn't thinking so much about Stefan. At least not entirely.

She had wanted in part to remember why she had liked Tyler to begin with. She wanted to see if it would be believable to everyone if she pretended to like him now. She saw shadows of his old self in him still, she realized. She could see the boy she had once thought about all the time just beneath the surface. It was funny because those feelings seemed so far away now and she wondered if that would happen with her feelings for Stefan. If one day those feelings would feel like something that had only been a passing sort of fancy. It wouldn't if she kept holding things in and secretly holding on to hope that wasn't there or rather hope that shouldn't have been.

Bonnie was sitting on her grandmother's porch in her pajamas, rocking back and forth in Sheila's white rocking chair. There was a chair next to it that had been meant for her grandfather before he died. Bonnie in her heart of hearts, when she allowed herself to think of the future, always thought that were she to ever allow herself to fall in love she'd want to have night's like her Grams had envisioned with her grandfather. Quiet nights sitting in rocking chairs looking out into the night and sipping tea. Speaking to one another in soft tones about nothing in particular.

Bonnie had never put a face to that person who would sit in the second rocking chair. She had never allowed herself to go that far. She had imagined countless fantasies about Stefan alone but they had always been acting out scenes from movies and books. The rocking chair was meant for her grandfather. It was reserved from something or someone real.

Bonnie thought about Tyler's proposition. Fake dating always sounded like a better idea in the movies. It was always fun and entertaining to watch as the tension grew and fake feelings became real and the two leads who the audience always knew were supposed to be together finally got together. Like Chase and Nicole in _Drive Me Crazy_ or Ronald and Cindy in _Can't Buy Me Love_. It was amazing in theory but in practice it just seemed like a lot of work and Bonnie honestly wasn't sure that anyone would buy that someone like Tyler Lockwood would ever want to be with someone like her.

Bonnie wasn't worried about either of them catching feelings. Tyler was right, they could help each other out and keep it all business. They didn't even like each other in the person to person sense anymore and so she doubted that they'd ever fall for one another in the romantic sense, even if he was beautiful with an amazing smile and a laugh that made Bonnie feel like she was about to melt into a puddle on the floor. He was Tyler Lockwood and considering how he had treated Vicki, she doubted that he could even fake being a good boyfriend let alone accomplish it for real.

Still it was an easy out. One that would coincide with her erratic behavior and help keep her secrets. The thing was she would have to lie. She would have to lie to Elena. She would have to lie to Stefan. Worst of all she would have to lie to herself and squash down all of her feelings. But honestly, what real choice did she have? There were too many people who could get hurt and she had too much to lose if she told the truth.

Bonnie's was brought out of her musings when a car pulled into Sheila's driveway. Bonnie normally smiled when she saw Stefan's 1963 Porsche pull into the drive. However, in that moment Bonnie just felt conflicted and tired. She wanted to stop thinking about Stefan. She wanted to stop wishing for things that she couldn't have. She wanted to be free of the fantasy in her head.

Bonnie watched as Stefan turned off the car and got out of it. She watched as he walked over to the passenger's side and pulled out a box and then shut the door. Bonnie stood from the chair as he began to walk up the drive and then up the porch steps.

Stefan was another boy that was beautiful up close but in a different way than Tyler was. Stefan was handsome in that soft kind of way that casting directors looked for in leads when they were casting period pieces and dramatic love stories. Tyler was beautiful in a wild kind of way. In a devil may care James Dean in _Rebel Without a Cause_ kind of way. He was all hard angles and hard looks but at the same time there was a softness underneath that made girls want to dig it out of him and unearth those parts that he kept hidden.

Stefan hid himself in a different way. Where Tyler hid under bravado, anger, and cockiness, Stefan hid under politeness, stiffness and a calm sort of cool reserve that Bonnie sometimes envied. They both seemed to soften around Bonnie though, she got to see the sides they kept hidden. Maybe that was the real reason she had fallen for them both at different times. She'd just never understood why they had shown those sides to her in the first place. Bonnie wished that Stefan in particular never had. She wouldn't be in her current predicament if he hadn't.

"Hey," Stefan said giving a small smile as he stopped in front of Bonnie finally.

Bonnie smiled in return but she was sure it didn't reach her eyes and that he would notice. "Hey," she said back.

Stefan held out the box in his hand. "My mom and I went into the city today after school. I stopped by that bakery you like. I picked up some vegan cupcakes for you and your Grams. I know she's off animal products for a while for some kind of fall cleanse so I thought she might like something sweet she could actually eat."

Bonnie sighed. The thoughtfulness didn't help either. He would do things like this and she would fall all over again and then she would see him with Elena and her heart would break. She had a cycle with Stefan that was different than Tyler and Vicki's but it was a cycle just the same. The thing was, Elena wasn't there any longer and there was nothing to bring her back to reality except for the loyalty she had for her friend. "Thanks, you didn't have to do that." Bonnie frowned.

"I know that Bonnie," Stefan sighed, "I like doing things for you. I like seeing you smile. That didn't seem to bother you before." He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Why'd you run off after practice? Tyler said that you had some kind of family emergency."

Bonnie shrugged. "It was nothing. I thought my dad got hurt but he was actually talking about some side effects for some experimental drug he's selling at some pharmacy convention next month," she said, lying was getting easier. "You know how he gets when he rambles and I misunderstood."

"Good," Stefan nodded, "I'm glad that everything's alright. I still…I wanted to talk to you."

Bonnie gripped the box that he'd handed her and bit her lip. "If this is about the letter then I told you…talking isn't really necessary," she said, "Look we don't have to go into any of this. I'm embarrassed enough as it is already."

"You don't have to be embarrassed Bonnie," Stefan said quickly, "I wanted to say something to you this morning but then I saw you with Lockwood at your locker on my way to class and again in the nurse's office. Then that thing in History class with him moving seats and you writing notes to each other. Then you kiss him at practice and all of a sudden he knows more about what's going on with you than I do. I thought…you said I wouldn't lose you after Elena left and then I got this letter and I didn't know how to feel and now this whole thing with you and Lockwood is going on and you didn't even tell me. I don't know what to think about it because I know this letter at least part of it was recent and I just… you're not even really his type."

Bonnie was already not wanting to have the conversation but as Stefan said the last words she felt like she someone had poured a bucket of water over her head and not in that fun and sexy kind of way that Jennifer Beals had done as Alex in _Flashdance_. "What?"

"I mean I asked him point blank after practice what the deal was with you two and he said he liked you," Stefan frowned. Bonnie's eyes widened. "I was surprised too. I mean, Lockwood isn't the kind of guy that would normally go for a girl like you."

Bonnie once again felt gutted and she shook her head. "What's that even supposed to mean, Stefan? Because I'm not as hot as Vicki or-?"

"No!" Stefan cut in quickly, "That's not what I meant. I mean come on. Vicki pretty I guess but you're beautiful. Besides she's kind of a disaster and Lockwood kind of seemed into the drama. You're not like that Bonnie. You can be dramatic sometimes yeah but not in a way that damages yourself or hurts people. You care about people. You're sweet and insightful and smart and funny and you're the kind of girl that stays home and reads on Saturday night not the kind of girl that parties on weekends and skips town on a whim."

Bonnie stared. Normally she and Stefan were always on the same page. Normally she could catch his meaning without even trying. Normally it wasn't that hard and she wasn't this hurt that easily. "So I'm not as fun and so why would Tyler want me right? I'm just some homely girl that reads too much and isn't about the right kind of drama."

Stefan pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not what I said and I just….I didn't think that he could see you," Stefan said, "The real you. I didn't think he could see how amazing and special you are because I had this idea in my head that I only I ever could. I'm not judging him for liking you. I couldn't really do that when I had a crush on you when I first got here. I'm kind of…I don't know. I'm more surprised you like him back I guess. Especially after reading that letter you wrote."

Bonnie went from feeling dejected to hopeful so fast she felt bodily dizzy with it. "I…you…what?" Stefan had had a crush on her? How was that ever possible? This was Stefan. Perfect Stefan and she was just Bonnie. "When?"

Stefan sighed. "When I first moved here," he admitted, "I liked you a lot but I couldn't tell if you liked me or not because you were just so nice to everyone all the time and I didn't think you being nice to me was anything special. Then Elena said that you didn't really date and so I kind of gave up before I even tried. But now with that letter…I don't know how I'm supposed to feel and I can't stop thinking about you and all of those 'what ifs' you wrote about."

Stefan had liked her. He'd thought about her. He was thinking about her. He'd possibly returned her feelings. But as much as Bonnie wanted to jump up and down and smile and laugh, she also wanted to cry because it was too late. Bonnie wasn't even all that surprised that Elena had told Stefan that she didn't really date because Elena had liked Stefan so much even back then. Now she loved him. She'd dumped him but she still loved him. Stefan might've had a crush on her at some point but it was Elena he loved. Elena he missed. It was he loneliness that Elena had left behind that he was trying to fill with Bonnie in that moment. Bonnie shook her head again and made a snap decision. This couldn't happen.

"Stefan," she said, "Like I said I wrote that letter a long time ago….just like whatever it was that you f-felt for me was a long time ago. You just broke up with my best friend. You're still in love with my best friend. There's nothing for us to talk about. 'What ifs' are just that, hypotheticals. I didn't mean for the letter to get out and you should have never gotten it." Bonnie decided to put the nail in the coffin. "I'm with Tyler now. I like him a lot. Please just don't tell Elena about the letter. Let's just forget it and move on alright?"

Stefan looked torn and Bonnie watched as his mouth opened and then closed again. "But Bonnie I…."

Bonnie wouldn't cry. She couldn't. It would only make things worse. "If you care about me at all, would you just please promise me that you won't tell Elena and that you'll let this go?"

Bonnie watched as Stefan's face closed and he gave a stiff nod. "Fine," he said, "I promise. Because I _do_ care about you Bonnie. Enjoy the cupcakes."

Bonnie fled into the house as Stefan turned and walked down the steps. She felt the first stirrings of tears as she shut the door behind her and put the box of cupcakes on the table in the foyer. Bonnie suddenly felt as if she wasn't able to breathe.

Bonnie thought that she would have a full on panic attack when suddenly her phone vibrated in her pocket. She dug it out and looked at it and was surprised to see she had gotten a message notification from Tyler. Frowning in confusion Bonnie opened the message. Tyler had sent her a video with a message that read, " _Are these friends of yours?"_

Bonnie pressed play and laughed as she watched three crows chase down at cat that made failed attempts to strike as it ran across the pavement trying to get away from the birds and their shrieking caws. Bonnie texted back " _Dumb ass_ ," with a laughing emoji.

Bonnie grinned as Tyler sent another video in response. By the time she'd stopped texting him back Bonnie felt calm and she realized as she told him she was going to bed that she hadn't thought about Stefan the entire time she'd been texting him. She hadn't cried. She hadn't even shown the appropriate amount of teen angst that most movies allowed a girl who had just found out her secret crush had once had feelings for her to show. Bonnie had been fine. All of that turmoil had taken a back seat.

Bonnie smiled to herself and shook her head. "Oh my God," suddenly she knew exactly what needed to be done.

 **:::**

The next day at school Bonnie walked in with a grim sense of determination. When Bonnie walked through the parking lot and up to the front doors in her black floral print dress, crimson leggings, black knee high boots, black leather jacket and black bowler cap, Vicki wasn't there to make fun of her outfit. She was however, greeted by the majority of the student body, which, though not that odd as she normally greeted most everyone, felt more like people were seeking her out and actually trying to stop her for conversation which was in fact weird. Bonnie however, ignored them in favor of completing the task she had set out to do that morning.

In the movie _Drive Me Crazy_ staring Melissa Joan Hart post _Sabrina the Teenage Witch_ and Adrian Grenier pre _Entourage_ , next door neighbors Chase and Nicole come up with a plan to fake a relationship to attract the interest of their respective paramours. Lots of stuff happens including Chase getting a much needed makeover, angst, a poorly orchestrated prank with sprinklers and misunderstandings and of course by the end they discover that they actually want to be together like in most movies of the type. Bonnie had the movie in mind as she approached Tyler at his locker for two reasons, the first being that she was determined not to make the same mistakes that Nicole did and set guidelines and boundaries up front and second because it contained one of the most poignant lines in any high school movie that wasn't written in directed by John Hughes, " _To make an impact, you have to go to extremes."_ Bonnie was about to go to extremes.

Tyler was turned away from her talking to Luka who Bonnie had forgotten he hung out with and some girl that Bonnie saw him with all the time that she thought was named something or other that started with an "H". Caroline had told her once because when the brunette had first moved there, she had been on her friends radar as a possible threat to her popularity standing but the girl had mostly just hung out with Tyler and Greta Martin before Luka's sister graduated last year.

Bonnie walked up to Tyler and tapped him on the shoulder. She tried her best not to let her nerves show as he turned around. The hallway was full and she could feel the eyes on them. She still hadn't talked to Caroline and she knew that she would have to eventually. She just needed to tackle one thing at a time.

"Lockwood," Bonnie greeted as he turned to face her.

"Bennett," Tyler responded, one eyebrow raised. His smile was slow as he gave her a once over.  
"What's up?"

"I'm being the omen," Bonnie said. Tyler laughed but she was serious. She got what he meant now. Don't run from your fears, take control and become something to fear. Bonnie knew that this was the make or break moment. "Let's do this."

Tyler looked around in disbelief for a moment before turning back to Bonnie and grinning. Before Bonnie knew what was happening, Tyler grabbed her and kissed her. It was different than when she kissed him. Different with him initiating it. Different with him taking control and applying just the right amount of pressure as he angled her head back and swept his tongue over her bottom lip before pulling away. Bonnie felt a bit dazed as he pulled back. She blinked several times. She reached up to touch her lips and hated that they were tingling, then glanced around to find that everyone was watching.

Tyler had one hand on Bonnie's hip and the other on Bonnie's neck and he looked like he might kiss her again when the bell rang. "I'm going to Trig." She announced.

Tyler nodded, leaning down to peck her on the lips quickly before pulling away. "I'll find you during free period."

Bonnie nodded. "Right," she said. Tyler let her go and then squeezed her hand once before she turned and came face to face with the student body. "Carry on," she said with a wave of her hand at the dozens of students staring them down as if they had nothing better to do, before she weaved through the crowd.

"As you were," she heard Tyler say behind her and when she looked over her shoulder he was watching her walk away. Bonnie gave a quick wave and Tyler winked.

Bonnie struggled to pay attention in Trig but failed miserably. It wasn't helping that her phone was blowing up and Bonnie was determined not to answer any of her texts until she and Tyler got their story straight and they discussed the guidelines.

Bonnie shouldn't have been surprised when Tyler was waiting for her outside of her Trig class but she was. Bonnie met him at the door and he took her books before holding his hand out for her to take. Bonnie stared at it. She supposed she would have to get used to the idea of holding Tyler's hand and walking down the hall with him if they were going to pull off what she had planned. Still she hesitated before taking Tyler's hand and threading their fingers together.

"Where are we going?" Bonnie asked.

"Picnic tables outside," he said, "They're pretty dead this time of day and since we're kind of under a microscope right now it's probably the only place that we can be alone to talk."

Bonnie nodded and allowed herself to be led outside and to the picnic benches. Bonnie wished that Tyler's hand was sweaty and gross so she wouldn't like holding his hand so much. His hand wasn't sweaty though, but big and warm and perfect. She felt how Sam from _Sixteen Candles_ must have felt when Jake Ryan showed up at the church where her sister got married and took her hand and whisked her away in his shiny red sports car.

Bonnie shook her head to clear it as Tyler placed their things on the table before sitting down and pulling Bonnie down to sit next to him. Bonnie wasn't sure why they were still holding hands now that they were alone and when she looked at Tyler expectantly he let her hand go and sighed, leaning against the table propped up on his elbows.

"So," Tyler said, "How do you want to do this?"

Bonnie wasn't really sure. She didn't have any practical relationship experience. All of her research had been done with books and film. Still she feigned confidence as she spoke. "We need to go over our game plan and get our story straight," she said, "People are going to have questions. Especially Matt and Caroline. They're our best friends and they're going to wonder how this all happened under their noses without them noticing and why we didn't tell them anything. We have to sell it. Sell _us_."

Tyler rolled his eyes. "It won't be as hard as you think to do that," he said, "but of course you have to take the fun out of everything. If you want to plan let's plan. So how _did_ we get together?"

"The day Elena left and I almost hit you with my car," Bonnie said, "You paid for our food and I wasn't very appreciative at the time but I still have your number from when we used to talk and so I texted you and you were your idiotic self by telling terrible jokes to make me feel better about Elena. Then we started texting every day after that. I made you feel better about ending your poisonous cycle with Vicki and you made me feel less alone without Elena. When I fainted from dehydration you were so worried about me and you realized that you really liked me and so you asked me out and then I kissed you. The kiss Stefan walked in on. The rest as they say is history."

Tyler looked thoughtful a moment. Bonnie had spent a lot of time thinking about their story. About how she could twist around what actually happened to benefit them and lend credit to the parts that were less than truthful. "That actually sounds pretty believable."

Bonnie grinned. "The best lies have a little bit of truth in them," she said. Bonnie took out a spiral notebook from her messenger bag. "Now let's go over the ground rules."

"Ground rules?" Tyler looked dumbfounded.

"Yes," Bonnie nodded. "In almost every romantic comedy featuring fake relationships they don't set good and clear boundaries going in. Then feelings start to blur and things get crazy. In _Can't Buy Me Love_ starring Patrick Dempsey before he became 'McDreamy', released in 1987, Ronald pays Cindy to fake date him and she sets boundaries and things _still_ got blurry. The thing was, Ronald got out of control but it was Cindy that made the mistake of breaking her own rules and falling for him. The problem was they never wrote their rules down and so they were out of sight and out of mind. I'm not going to make that same mistake."

"So what you're saying is you need these rules because you're afraid you're going to fall for me otherwise?" Tyler smiled.

Of course that's what he would think. He had an ego the size of Beyonce's bank account. "No," Bonnie shook her head, "I just want things to be clear and concise with no confusion. We're not together and are never going to be together. We just need to make it look like we are and we need to set up how we're going to do that and what lines we're not going to cross."

Tyler's smile faded. "Fine," Tyler huffed, "What are our rules for being 'we people'."

Bonnie frowned. "'We' what?"

"'We people'," Tyler reiterated, "' _We can't make it to the party_.' ' _We never miss a game._ ' ' _We don't like the color red_ '," Bonnie laughed as he continued, "We people.' It's like when couples get together they become this weird hybrid organism that can't form their own separate opinions. They spend all their time together and they bend over backwards to try to please the other person."

"Wow," Bonnie said, "I can't imagine why Vicki would think that you're commitment phobic. It's not a bad thing. It's called being in love with someone."

"It's not like that," Tyler frowned, "Being in love or whatever is all well and fine but if you lose yourself in the process then what's the point. I mean….if I could find someone who could be with me without trying to change me but still enhance the good things about me and liked me for who I am, I'd be all over it. That just doesn't happen and it definitely didn't happen with Vicki. I mean, come on Bennett, you have to get what I mean. If you didn't you would've been dating before now."

Bonnie wanted to keep giving him a hard time just for the sake of it but she honestly understood completely. She remembered how different Stefan became when he was around Elena. How much more closed off he was and Elena focused.

"I get what you're saying," she admitted, "But that's not why I don't date. It's different for me. Anyway, if you and I are going to be 'we people' even in the fake sense, we wouldn't be like that. We wouldn't try to change each other. I'm too stubborn and you're too hard headed. We challenge each other. We get each other. As annoying as you are, there honestly isn't all that much I would change about you anyway. When you're with me most of the time or at least before high school…I got to see the good parts."

"You get to see the good parts now," Tyler said, "You ever wonder why that is?"

Bonnie sighed. "Because I see through your bullshit and so you don't bother with the bravado." She laughed.

Tyler stared at her a long time before he shook his head and looked away. "Something like that," he said. Bonnie dug out one of her fountain pens and got ready to write. "So…what's going on the guide to being non hybrid organism 'we people'."

Bonnie wrote down, " _BONNIE AND TYLER'S GUIDE TO BEING 'WE' PEOPLE_ " in all caps at the top of the page. Tyler smirked as she finished. "First rule," Bonnie said, "No kissing."

"I contest," Tyler said holding up his hand, "No. That's not going to work. There's no way that anyone is going to believe we're dating if I don't have my hands all over you like all of the time."

Bonnie made a face. "Relationships aren't just about physicality," Bonnie stated, "We could show our affection in different ways. You and Vicki were mostly physical right. Why move on with me if you didn't want something different? Besides, no one is going to believe that I'm going to go from not dating or even talking to a boy to making out against the lockers between bells."

" _You_ kissed _me_ first," Tyler pointed out, "Now we've kissed _twice_ in front of everyone. I think they'll believe it."

Bonnie shook her head. "This is nonnegotiable."

"I'm vetoing it," he said, "We need to compromise. Fake or real that's what relationships are about right?"

"Look," Bonnie said, "I know you're like the James Dean of this kind of thing but I've never had a boyfriend before. This kind of stuff is obviously a bigger deal to me than you."

"First of all you have the references of an eighty year old woman," Tyler sighed, "Second, I'm not saying it's not a big deal to me. I'm saying that if I were in a relationship with you, a real one, I'd want to kiss you all the time. So not kissing you, even if we're pretending doesn't make sense to me."

Bonnie felt her face flush as she looked down. She wasn't flattered it was just hot outside as fall hadn't set in yet. "I just don't want all my firsts to be fake," Bonnie murmured, "You took a lot of them already."

"I know. I read the letter, remember? You want to save something for someone real," Tyler nodded, "I get it. So like I said. We'll compromise. No heavy make out sessions. How about we only kiss in front of people. You know, for show."

Bonnie bit her lip as she considered it. "Fine," she acquiesced, "But no tongue."

Tyler looked like he might argue but threw up his hands in defeat at Bonnie's look. "Alright," he agreed, "Deal. Next rule."

Bonnie wrote it down and then continued. "If we're thinking about ways we can appear affectionate and keep the kissing to a bare minimum-"

"Again you kissed me first," Tyler cut it.

Bonnie went on as if he hadn't spoken. "You can put your hand in my back pocket when we walk the halls together."

"What the hell is that?"

Bonnie stared at him and spoke slowly as if speaking to a child. " _Sixteen Candles_ ," Bonnie explained, "The movie opens with a couple with their hands in each other's back pockets. It's a couple's thing."

" _Okay_ ," Tyler said staring blankly at her, "Obviously that's not something from this time period. But whatever. What movie is this again?"

" _Sixteen Candles_ ," Bonnie repeated, "John Hughes classic. 1984. The movie that contains the fifth best kiss in all cinematic history between Sam and Jake Ryan over her birthday cake. The kiss is iconic." Tyler's face remained blank. "Seriously? Nothing?"

"Look I know who John Hughes is okay. Caroline made me and Matt watch _The Breakfast Club_. I've just never seen that one."

"How could you watch _The Breakfast Club_ and not watch _Sixteen Candles_? I mean John Hughes movies are made for marathons."

"Okay, chill, princess," Tyler laughed, "I would call you, Cherry but you don't have red hair."

Bonnie wasn't sure whether to be impressed or more annoyed. "You can reference direct lines from _The Breakfast Club_ and you remember the nickname Bender gave to Claire but you've never watched _Sixteen Candles_? It's like a miracle and a travesty all at once. Who has been in charge of your movie viewership? Also if anyone is Claire it's Elena."

Tyler laughed. "Elena?!" he shook his head, "Yeah no. Elena doesn't have any sense of style like at all. Her taste is pretty bland honestly. Plus I think I've actually seen you in the outfit Claire wears in the movie before." Bonnie was guilty of that and so she couldn't argue. She'd bought the outfit on Etsy as a part of a _Breakfast Club_ memorabilia collection along with a signed movie poster and a replica of Emilio Estevez's letterman jacket. "Then you have the fact that Claire's a popular girl who hates being poplar. Which is literally you. Plus her parents are on the verge of getting a divorce. Yours are divorced. Also you play like you like those good guys like Stefan but honestly that guy is boring and you might be friends with him like she was with Emilio Estevez but you'd fall for a bad boy in a second. Why else would you have written me that letter? And lastly you're the only one of all of your friends who is nice enough or really competent enough to bother to give someone that looks as unfortunate as that weird girl in the movie a makeover. I mean if not for you Aimee Bradley would still be wearing that weird burnt orange cardigan she used to wear every day and those terrible graphic tees she used to buy at Hot Topic."

Bonnie found that she couldn't argue with a lot of what Tyler had said aside from the whole bad boy thing. She had one more important opposing point she could argue however and that was, "Claire was a lead character."

Tyler blinked. " _And_?" Bonnie didn't really have an answer beyond the fact that she didn't see herself as such and wasn't sure how anyone could, especially him who easily fit the bill for main love interest in any high school movie scenario. "Also while we're on the subject. I am now invited to movie night since you're so concerned with my film viewership. Nope. Scratch that. As your fake boyfriend I will now _co-host_ movie nights and my friends get to come too."

Bonnie thought about what Jeremy had said about not being the only one who had always wanted an invite. She thought about Luka who was now friends with her in a way and was friends with Tyler. It would seem that she could keep her promise to Jeremy. It was that and the fact that Tyler had compared her to Claire Standish that made her say, "Alright, deal." And then, "Next rule."

"You have to go to parties and that includes those boring Founder's events my mom organizes," Bonnie made a face, "I know. But you might actually have fun at the parties I throw and Caroline throws good ones too. I get the hesitance about the Founder's ones at least. But it would be weird if my mom hosted a party and my girlfriend didn't show up. Besides Vicki and I never went to them together and she'd get the message loud and clear if I walked in with you on my arm."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Fine." She wrote it down. "If I'm going to parties you're driving me to school every day and you'll have to help Grams in the garden like you used to." She was pretty sure that Stefan's days of helping were over.

"Done," he conceded, "I love Ms. Sheila. No worries about that." Her Grams loved Tyler too. She always talked about how much she missed him. She probably would be over the moon when Bonnie brought him home and told her they were dating.

Bonnie sighed. She would have to lie to her Grams. She didn't like it at all but what choice did she have.

"I could write you a notes," Tyler said interrupting her thoughts, "Every day."

"You'd do that?" Bonnie asked, surprised.

"Vicki… she wanted them all the time," Tyler said, "I never understood why I couldn't just text her but then I realized that whenever I did it was always just to ask her to come over. We never talked really. She wanted to believe it was something that it wasn't I guess."

Bonnie shook her head. "She didn't want notes Tyler," she said, "She wanted letters. She wanted something tangible that she could hold in her hands. Proof that you actually cared. Something she could read and revisit whenever the mood struck her. Something that could remind her how you feel about her. I get it."

"I tried," Tyler said, "But I never really knew what to say. Like I said we didn't talk. I cared about her but it wasn't…anything to write home about I guess."

Bonnie poked him with the pen in her hand and scoffed at his bad attempt at a pun. "That's just the thing," she said, "When you like someone it just comes naturally. You don't go in planning what you want to say and half the time you don't even remember what you wrote after. You just feel so much that you have to put it somewhere. If you don't get that then I don't know how you're going to manage writing me a note every day."

Tyler reached out and brushed her hair over her shoulder and adjusted her hat on her head. He smiled at her like he was hiding a secret and Bonnie frowned. "I can manage it, Bennett," he said, "Write it down."

"If you say so." Bonnie was skeptical but she wrote it down.

"Anything else?" Tyler asked.

"Obviously we can't tell anyone about this not being real," Bonnie said, "No matter who it is. It'd be way too embarrassing for the both of us."

"No problem. First rule of _Fight Club_."

"What? What does that even mean? Are you having a stroke or something?" Bonnie stared as Tyler's eyes widened.

"You've never seen _Fight Club_ ," Tyler looked disturbed, "Yeah. No. That's going on the movie night watch list and there isn't even a kiss at the end but I bet the couple is going to blow all of the couples on your best kiss list or whatever out of the water."

"That list is for _iconic_ couples," Bonnie said, even as she wrote it down.

"They'll make the list," Tyler said unbothered, "Trust me." Tyler took the pen from Bonnie's hand. "Also you're going with me on the Ski Trip in December."

Bonnie almost ripped the pen from Tyler's hand as he wrote. The Mystic Falls High School Ski Trip was funded by Mayor Richard Lockwood and open to all seniors no matter their grades, but only the underclassmen that were honor roll students. Tyler was many things but he was also very intelligent though he acted otherwise at times. Besides that he had the Lockwood image to uphold and sports he wanted to keep his grades up to stay qualified for. So Tyler was an honor roll student and went every year. Vicki had never been able to go but as a senior could go this year, even though her grades were shit and she only attended school just enough to avoid truancy charges. Which was why Bonnie suspected Tyler had written it down. A weekend in Aspen with Vicki and he'd be back down the rabbit hole.

Actually a lot of her friends qualified to go. Bonnie had always been an honor roll student as well. The thing was, Bonnie had never been on the Ski Trip no matter how much she'd always wanted to go to Aspen even though she was more than qualified. She'd never been because the trip was the location where more students lost their virginity than Senior Week and Prom combined.

"Is that really necessary to put in?" Bonnie asked nervously, "I mean… that's three whole months from now. We're probably not going to still be doing this by then."

"We could be," Tyler said, "Call it a contingency plan. Everyone knows that no one in their right mind would ever let their boyfriend go on that trip alone. So in three months if we're still doing this, you're coming with me."

Bonnie was certain that by the time the trip came around she and Tyler would be ancient history. That was the only reason that Bonnie said, "Okay."

"Alright," Tyler said, "No more rules. If there's too many it won't feel organic and it won't look real. Besides Bonnie, you need to relax. Life doesn't need to be planned all the time. Just go with the flow. Let's just see what happens."

"Alright it's done," Bonnie said as she looked it over.

 ** _BONNIE AND TYLER'S GUIDE TO BEING "WE" PEOPLE_**

 _1.)_ _Kissing allowed ONLY in front of others. NO TONGUE!_

 _2.) Tyler is allowed to put his hand into Bonnie's back pocket._

 _3.) Bonnie will allow Tyler to Co-Host Friday Night Movie Nights! (Sixteen Candles/Fight Club Double Feature is a Must!)_

 _4.) Bonnie must attend parties and Founder's Events_

 _5.) Tyler must drive Bonnie to school every day and help Grams in the Garden after school._

 _6.) Tyler will write Bonnie a note every day._

 _7.) NO SNITCHING!_

 _8.) SKI TRIP!_

The last time Bonnie did something without meticulous planning she had kissed Tyler and it was part of the reason she was in her present predicament. But Bonnie stayed quiet as they signed the bottom of their pseudo contract even though she felt like there was so much that they missed out on rule wise.

Bonnie held out her hand for Tyler to shake and after laughing he did. Bonnie hadn't known it yet but in that moment her rewrite had begun.

 _ **End Notes: Thanks for reading again! It might be a little before the next chapter but it is coming. Like I said I Will be deviating from the source material after this chapter and adding more of my own twist. Hopefully you all stick around for the ride!**_


	3. PART THREE: FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (PART I)

**Title:** To All the Boys I've Love Before

 **Rating:** T

 **Genre:** AU/All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Tyler, Bonnie/Stefan, Caroline/Matt, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Luka, Greta/Mason, ect.

 **Summary:** Bonnie Bennett keeps her love letters in her mother's old hatbox. Not ones she's received but ones she's written to every boy she's ever loved-there are five in all. The letters are meant for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed out and suddenly Bonnie's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

 **Warnings:** All Human, Fake/Pretend Relationships, Language, Fluff, ect.

 _ **Author's Note: Alright so I know you all were looking forward to movie night but there was some stuff I wanted to include first and this chapter was getting hella long. Also thanks for the reading and reviewing! Minimal editing but I tried! Lol! Excuse all errors I'll come back when I have time! Happy reading!**_

 **PART THREE || FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (CAMERA ACTION) PART I**

" _Everybody allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female."_

― **Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey**

Most of Bonnie Bennett's experience with romance was as a viewer. She had watched romantic dramas and comedies for the better part of her seventeen years on the planet. She had read more romantic novels than most people, be they teenage girl or literary scholar, could name. She knew exactly what it took to make a romance compelling. She knew how it should look from the outside looking in. In order to sell a romance to an audience the lead characters had to have chemistry.

When the chemistry was there onscreen, it didn't particularly matter how the actors felt about one another in real life. Case in point, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams hated each other during the filming of _The Notebook_ to the point where Ryan asked that Rachel be removed from the film and the director had ended up doing some sort of pseudo couples therapy intervention for them to make it through the rest of the filming. However, the magic of it was, you wouldn't know that from watching the movie. The two had infamous sizzling onscreen chemistry, and yes they ended up dating on and off for four years after wrapping the movie but that wasn't the point. The point was the outside world was able to more than just buy the love story in spite of their off-screen animosity, but the movie became legendary among romances and will forever be on everyone's go to list when naming the most epic movie portrayals of romance of all time.

On the other end of the spectrum there was _Anna Karenina_ , based on the passionate tale by Leo Tolstoy that, in novel form, has gotten decades of literary and critical acclaim. Sadly the movie adaption released in 2012 was severely lacking in spite of the stellar cast and amazing cinematography due to not just the lack of justice to the source material but the obvious lack of chemistry between Keira Knightley and Aaron Taylor Johnson. Their characters were meant to portray one of the greatest love stories of all time but in spite of the incredible costumes and heaving bodices the romance was rather lackluster and watching them onscreen together was something that Bonnie likened to watching paint dry.

Bonnie also knew that chemistry was subjective, but when it was there it was there and when it wasn't it wasn't. There were ways to sell it, though overselling was always a danger if the material was in the wrong hands or the chemistry was lacking to begin with. In some cases, though overselling was the only other option besides admitting defeat and recasting or scrapping the whole project all together. Bonnie often thought that in those same cases, taking the later options would have been the right call.

In terms of character interactions, in romance opposition was just as important as harmony. If the characters had too much in common there wouldn't be enough conflict to keep the storyline interesting but if they were too different the viewer might not understand their attraction towards one another in the first place and the pay out of them coming together would have less of an impact if the audience didn't understand their dynamic or their desire to be together in the first place.

The most important thing outside of compatibility was body language and physical awareness. Bonnie knew this made her seem like a hypocrite when she had told Tyler that a relationship wasn't about just physicality but she had meant that. The thing was, in terms of body language the small things were just as important as the big. For instance, eye contact. The right gaze could say and do more than a kiss ever could. It didn't involve any physical touching but the way that the characters looked at one another was sometimes more important than any physical aspect ever could be.

There was all kinds of small touches. A lingering hand here, and a brush past a person there. It was also important to be at ease with one another. That didn't mean that there couldn't be tension and physical awareness. However, the mark of intimacy was comfort, even in the face of arguing or posturing or being angry. Even in the face of underlying sexual tension. There was a type of vulnerability that came with displaying any of those emotions fully, vulnerability spoke of comfort and comfort of intimacy.

Bonnie could go on about body language for ages. She could watch a movie ten times and still come up with a new way to analyze the way this character leaned in or the reason why this glance was significant or what it meant that director chose to film at this angle or directed the actors to walk with a certain posture. The list went on and on. Bonnie could likely in all honesty direct a romantic movie even if the actors had the worst chemistry known to mankind and still come up with something noteworthy.

However, Bonnie envied every director and actor in every romantic movie good or bad as she walked to History class with Tyler, hand in hand, after signing their contract. She envied them for one reason and one reason only, they had had time prepare. They had had scripts and lines and rehearsals. They could do take after take until they got it right. Bonnie and Tyler had been thrown to the wolves and while it was mostly Bonnie's doing, she couldn't help but pray to the gods of old and new, as well as the fictional gods of the world of rom-coms that she would make it out of her self-orchestrated one with if not an Oscar like _Casablanca_ , at least a good enough performance to fool the rest of the student body.

Tyler apparently had no such hang ups. As they walked down the hall Tyler was his same cocky and confident self, greeting people as they passed and smirking at anyone within eye range. The thing was he seemed to be intuitive enough to do the right things where Bonnie was concerned without any need for direction as well. He glanced down at her as they walked in that way that would appear to an outsider as a look of an awestruck teenage boy who couldn't believe he'd finally gotten the girl, and a wolf that caught his prey and didn't plan on sharing any time soon all at once. It was honestly unexpected.

Bonnie's own nerves must have shown because where their hands were locked together, Tyler kept rubbing his thumb over the surface of her skin in a reassuring gesture. A small gesture that a guy with commitment issues shouldn't even know to do. A small gesture that screamed caring and intimacy that Bonnie didn't think that Tyler was even capable of.

When they finally got to History, Tyler walked her to her seat and let go of her hand in that slow way that always got the close up screenshot in moves where the couple's fingers touched up until the very last second and then he helped her get her things, that he was still carrying in his free hand, settled before taking his own seat.

All through class Bonnie tried to focus but she kept glancing at Tyler and each time she would find him glancing at her as he looked between her and his notebook with this odd look of concentration on his face. Bonnie wasn't sure what to make of the easy way he had just slipped into the role of boyfriend and so she kept her head down and tried to take notes instead.

However, she did note that Stefan was watching them closely and Matt had his phone out once more. Mr. Saltzman looked in between them with a resigned sigh after a while as if he knew that not only was Tyler likely not going to pay any attention in his class and would still manage to pass per usual, but that they had created the latest piece of school drama that had the rest of the class distracted as well.

Bonnie wasn't at all surprised to see Caroline waiting for her at the door when the bell rang. Tyler was beside her one hand on the small of Bonnie's back as he raised an eyebrow at Caroline. "You need something, Forbes?" he asked and Bonnie wondered if he was taking the whole walking her from class to class like a good pretend boyfriend a bit too seriously.

Caroline looked at him with a kind of knowing smirk that Bonnie didn't quite understand and then said, "Just needed to borrow my best friend for some girl talk. Think you can spare her?"

Tyler looked to be debating it and then he sighed. "Yeah," he said, "But don't give her any crap about not telling you about us okay? It's still new so it's not like she did it on purpose."

Bonnie knew his words would fall on deaf ears but thought it was sweet of him to try to defend her even if it was still a bit jarring that Tyler was easing into all of it so smoothly. The fact that she had thought the words 'sweet' and 'Tyler' in the same sentence was odd enough.

Caroline attempted to drag her off at the same time Matt came out of the classroom and nudged Tyler in the shoulder, clearly wanting to talk to him as well. Tyler rolled his eyes at them both before stuffing a folding piece of paper into Bonnie's hand. "Text me later," he said, "I'll come find you before practice."

Bonnie nodded. She knew that since Tyler was doing everything he could be convincing, she would have to play her part as well. A real boyfriend and girlfriend would make big deal out of saying goodbye no matter how long they would be apart, especially in the early stages. She remembered when Caroline and Matt had first started dating Caroline had been so clinging that Matt had debated on dumping her before they had even gotten started good. It was funny to Bonnie because Matt had become the more affectionate of the two when they weren't in mixed company but one would never have guessed in the beginning.

With that in mind Bonnie placed a hand on Tyler's chest and used the other tug at the sleeve of his stupid letterman jacket. She titled her head up expectantly and Tyler got the hint because he leaned down and brushed his lips over her once, twice, gently before pulling away. Bonnie closed her eyes and shivered and she wasn't even acting. It didn't make any sense. How could he manage that without even using tongue? Why was he that good? She really hated him sometimes. "Don't miss me too much."

Tyler leaned down and pressed his lips to hers again. "Of course I will. I'll be counting the seconds. Pining away. I'll put all those guys in the movies to shame."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Such a dork," she laughed. She knew he was joking but his tone was so serious she almost believed him. "See you later," Bonnie murmured as he pulled away.

"Most definitely," Tyler smiled and then Matt was pulling him away and shaking his head and saying, "Alright lover boy, let's go. We're going to be late for English."

Bonnie watched them walk away and barely registered that she and Caroline had been joined by Stefan. Bonnie unwrapped the note Tyler had given her and her eyes widened when she saw that he had drawn a sketch of her sitting at her desk, head bent over her history book, only she had a pair of elaborate black wings. Underneath he had written:

 _As far as omens go, I'd take you over a crow any day. Thanks, for taking a chance on me, Bonnie. You won't regret it. I promise._

 _Love,  
Tyler_

It wasn't poetry. Bonnie could write a better letter in her sleep. It wasn't Captain Wentworth or a profession of love to rival Pablo Neruda's sonnets but it was so very Tyler that it was somehow kind of perfect and Bonnie couldn't help but smile.

"Oh my God," Caroline said as she read over her shoulder, "You really are official?" At Bonnie's nod she smiled. "I can't believe it. Finally! Your first boyfriend and it's Tyler Lockwood. It should be surprising but it's kind of not. I mean you're hot in a bohemian alternative kind of way and he's hot in the bad boy devil may care kind of way. You're opposites but in that opposites attract kind of way where you see in the other everything you lack. This is the classic bad boy good girl romantic comedy storyline you eat up. It couldn't be more perfect. Besides that you two were always so close before and he's always been interested."

"Yup we're official." Bonnie said ignoring most of Caroline's usual rambling but blinked at Caroline in surprised at the last statement. "What? What do you mean he's always been interested?" For as long as Bonnie knew him he'd always been interested in Vicki.

Caroline looked just as shocked and then shook her head. "I love you but you're like the most oblivious person I know." She linked their arms together. "So first boyfriend ever. Big milestone. How do you feel?"

Bonnie tried to think up an answer that would sound good. Convincing. She wanted to tell her the truth. To tell her Tyler was only her first fake boyfriend because she was dumb enough to write a love letter to the first boy Elena had ever loved. She knew she couldn't do that though and she hated lying to her friend. Still she had to think up a lie that Caroline would believe. However the more she tried to come up with a lie the less she could think at all, her mind went blank almost immediately and she sighed. She decided to just be as honest as she could. "I mean," she said, "I've been building this idea of romance up in my head for so long even though I vowed to never date. I kind of worked myself up to the point where the idea scared me just as much as it appealed to me. I thought having someone would feel weird and I would be self-conscious all the time or that I would be disappointed because it wasn't like in the movies but with Tyler…it just kind of feels natural. I feel like I can be myself. Even the parts that people used to tease me about or that I don't always like. And even the stuff I've never done before like kissing and holding hands feels like something that I should have been doing all along. Sometimes when I'm with him I actually feel like I'm in a movie." Or a horror film or a black comedy but Bonnie didn't say that. There was more truth to what she actually did say than she though there would be.

Caroline looked at her with her the same soft gaze she had when they watched Pride and Prejudice and smiled. "Awww, you _really_ like him a lot," she sighed, "Ugh this is what I've always wanted for you. I knew that animosity and teasing was just sexual tension in disguise. You have to tell me _everything!_ "

Bonnie folded the note up and placed it in her messenger bag. She opened her mouth to begin the story that she and Tyler had fabricated when suddenly she noticed Stefan. "I know you're kind of still annoyed with me because of…," he paused as he glanced over at Caroline and then shook his head as his eyes moved back to Bonnie, "Please will you just be careful with him. He's got more experience with this stuff than you and I don't want to see you get hurt."

Bonnie felt her skin prickle at the implication and her irritation at Stefan grew but she took a calming breath. She knew he was coming out of a place of concern and her lingering feelings for him were the reason behind so much of her agitation. Her feelings put her on edge and made her take everything he said to heart. "I'll be fine Stefan," she said, managing to sound believable, "We really like each other."

"I hope for your sake that that's true," Stefan said with a resigned and sad sort of smile before kissing Bonnie on the cheek and disappearing down the hallway.

"Wow," Caroline, said, "One guy writing you love notes and the other showing such _friendly_ concern," Bonnie could almost hear the air quotes around the word "friendly", "You're making out with Tyler in front of the whole school even his ex-whatever Vicki was who notoriously loves to hate you without fear of retaliation and you might even be…dare I say dating…?!" Bonnie shook her head at Caroline's antics as the girl looked at her with a mock wide eyed expression. "Who are you and what have you done with Bonnie Bennett? Better question, who knew you had it in you? I did. Because I have always been your biggest cheerleader. It's about time. I mean all this going on and Elena hasn't even been gone a month yet. Maybe she should have left sooner. I'm liking this new you."

Bonnie gave Caroline a look. That was another thing, all of this stuff was going on and Bonnie couldn't even tell Elena about it. She felt like there was something missing and she knew it would only get worse the longer Elena was gone. "Well don't get used to it," Bonnie said, "I am still firmly in my comfort zone. Guys or no guys."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she snickered.

Bonnie didn't want to acknowledge it then but in order to play her part believably, her comfort zone would have to slowly but surely become a thing of the past.

 **:::**

In the two days that followed Tyler crept his way into Bonnie's newly established routine. Bonnie still brought in the hair and skin care products she helped her Grams brew in her kitchen but Tyler began to carry the box of them around as she delivered them to each customer. Vicki had gone from insulting Bonnie as she came into the building to watching Bonnie and Tyler walk in with a calculated look that made Bonnie uneasy. Like a cobra waiting to strike. Aimee Bradley still borrowed her clothes and shoes but also asked Bonnie for dating advice along with her fashion advice, which Bonnie thought was laughable.

Bonnie began to spend free periods studying with Tyler in the library or at the picnic benches outside. Jeremy and Anna joined them which wasn't as weird as she thought it might be. Anna was nice enough and Jeremy and Tyler often made use of the time talking about drawing and art and comic books and Bonnie and Anna had shared more than one girl moment with each comic book rant. "It's nice to have another girl around. I love Jeremy but he honestly is such a guy sometimes." Anna had said on the second day.

Instead of eating lunch with just Stefan, Bonnie ended up eating with Tyler and his friends which outside of the girl Bonnie had found out was named Hayley Marshall, were Bonnie's friends anyway as Tyler ate with Caroline and Matt normally, and she and Luka had started to text each other regarding the kinds of plants Bonnie and her Grams used in their products. Luka even volunteered to help out in the garden with Tyler as he wanted to become a botanist and her Grams had managed to grow plants in their Virginia climate that had no business being there.

As for Hayley, Bonnie liked her right off. She reminded Bonnie in looks and demeanor of Eliza Dushku in every teen movie or show that she'd ever been in. She had a dry sense of humor and an attitude that meant that she could easily be type cast in the rebel best friend role. Tyler had laughed for a full five minutes when Bonnie had mentioned it to him after they'd been introduced. "I have never heard a more accurate assessment of her in my life," Tyler chuckled, "I am never going to be able to look at her with a straight face again." To his credit he managed it a few times but would inevitably end up laughing but refused to tell Hayley what he was laughing at and she would look at him with this deadpan expression, straight out of Eliza Dushku's repertoire and flip him off which would make him and Bonnie laugh even harder.

Hayley had come to town with a foster family a year ago and didn't like talking about her biological parents who had passed away. Upon meeting Bonnie, she'd given her once over and nodded. "So you're the one Tyler used to write me letters about," and then, "Not that I didn't notice you before. I just didn't care and now that you guys are dating I kind of have to." She and Tyler had met at camp the year after he and Bonnie had stopped talking and apparently she knew more of their history than Bonnie cared to remember and than Stefan had ever been told about.

That was the most odd and peculiar thing about the whole situation. Stefan was the only one at all shocked to see Bonnie and Tyler together. Bonnie didn't really get it. At first she thought it was because people had just assumed they were together after she had made an idiot of herself and kissed him in front of everyone but in terms of Tyler's friends and their shared friends at least, that wasn't the case.

Caroline in particular seemed to oddly smug about the entire thing. "I always knew you guys would be cute together," she kept saying but Bonnie honestly felt like Caroline was just glad that she wouldn't be the only one of them with a date to homecoming and that Stefan and Elena were no longer the "it" couple in school even though Elena wasn't there to witness Bonnie and Tyler beginning to usurp them and Stefan didn't seem to care that the title was lost.

Stefan ate lunch with them as well but he mostly stayed quiet. He was reserved in a way Bonnie had come to hate but she never commented on it. She was almost relieved that he had stopped pressing about the letter and at least wanted to still be around them. Still she felt odd about him not acting like himself and the comfort that they once had around one another was fading fast.

The day before Movie Night they spent lunch discussing snack and food options. "You guys need to give Bonnie a list of things you want for Movie Night so we can pick the stuff up," Tyler said, he was sitting on the tabletop outside and Bonnie was sitting on the bench between his legs, the others were gathered around them, some at the same table and at the one next to it facing them.

Bonnie thought it should feel weirder to now have someone constantly invading her personal space. Especially, Tyler whom she hadn't even been able to have a civil conversation with not too long ago. However, there was a familiarity there from when they were constantly in each other's space before. That kind of familiarity never really went away. _Intimacy_ , Bonnie thought but chose not to dwell on it.

"' _We_ ' huh?" Matt had raised an eyebrow, "Taking this co-host thing a bit seriously are we?" Bonnie knew that he was teasing Tyler but in truth he was right.

Tyler had been asking Bonnie how Movie Night's normally went and questioning her about the normal attendees and debating if it should be at his house or Bonnie's since his was bigger and the guest list had grown. They had decided on Bonnie's because that was what everyone who regularly attended was used to. "We'll switch it up some nights if this one goes alright," Bonnie had promised.

Bonnie wondered what they'd do once they stopped dating and "broke up", if Movie Nights would be awkward afterwards. She hoped that they'd be fine and that they could still be friends when it was all over but she wasn't sure if they had gotten their friendship back just yet.

Tyler had opened his mouth to answer Matt but Caroline interrupted him. "More like he's taking this boyfriend thing seriously," she beamed, "Which I totally approve of since Bonnie totally deserves it."

It happened to be in that moment that Vicki passed and Bonnie felt uneasy as Tyler took the opportunity to sell their show. "It's easy to take it seriously with the right person," he said, kissing the top of Bonnie's head. Bonnie knew that she should smile or something to indicate she was flattered or touched or whatever but she couldn't look away from Vicki's hurt expression as she made her way across the lawn and to her car. Likely ditching the rest of the day. That time Bonnie didn't blame her. She wouldn't want to spend the day at school seeing someone she loved with someone else either. Vicki didn't know they were just playing pretend. Bonnie and Matt shared a look but Matt gave a weak smile to show he understood.

Bonnie realized that she had been in Vicki's role. Watching someone she loved be with someone else day after day. Even going on some of their dates with them. The thing was, her love for Elena had forced her to make peace with her feelings on the matter and she had managed it, it'd been hard but she had managed it. At the end of the day she hadn't had Stefan but she'd had her friends. Who did Vicki have? Bonnie looked at Matt. The answer was Vicki had had and still had more than she realized but she just couldn't seem to accept love or care from anyone. Maybe that was the real reason she had Tyler didn't work out.

Tyler interrupted Bonnie's musings about Vicki as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. He seemed oblivious of her darkening thoughts or maybe he was trying to distract her. "You always smell so good," he murmured, "What is that?"

Bonnie blushed in spite of herself and her lips twitched slightly. She wasn't sure why she was so flattered when he wasn't being sincere. It was for show. She had to remind herself of that. "Honey and orange blossom." At least it was the scent that day. She made a mental note to wear the scent again but refused to dwell on why she did. "Do you like it?"

Tyler nodded. He lifted her hand to his face and sniffed before placing a kiss in the center of her palm making Bonnie giggle. "It's nice. Sweet. Warm. Like you."

"Thank you." Bonnie smiled as he pressed her hand to his cheek.

They made eye contact and Bonnie got lost in the dark pools for a moment. Tyler definitely was determined to go for the Oscar it seemed. The moment was broken by a clearing of the throat. They looked away from each other and their eyes landed on Stefan. Like the rest of their friends he was watching them but unlike them he wasn't amused or thinking it was sweet. His face had the stony expression Bonnie knew well enough, it was one he wore when he was trying to hide his feelings. She wondered what was underneath.

"I don't need to add my favorite snacks to your little grocery list," Stefan said, standing, "I've been to more Movie Nights than you have so mine are already there. Bonnie knows what I like." There was a deliberate pause that Bonnie didn't understand and she felt Tyler tense behind her. Caroline cleared her throat and gave Stefan a pointed look and he sighed. "I'll see you guys later."

Bonnie frowned and wanted to say something but she wasn't sure what. Things just seemed off. She wasn't sure what to do about it. While she was actually coming to like Tyler's friends already, and she wasn't as adverse to Tyler's company as she thought she would be, she didn't want to lose Stefan as a friend. The thing was, in that moment it felt inevitable.

He left them all staring after him. Bonnie wrapped her floral kimono around herself and felt suddenly cold. Tyler's arms came around her as if he sensed it somehow, but he didn't say anything as he rested his chin atop Bonnie's head.

They were quiet for a while and then Luka broke the silence. "Well this is my first Movie Night and I want mint chocolate cookies and Wasabi peas."

Hayley made a face. "What kind of combination is that? Are you high or are you pregnant?"

Luka huffed. "Not like I'm planning on eating them together at the same time. You take the fun out of everything."

Bonnie smiled as the tension broke and leaned back into Tyler as they listened to the two of his friends argue.

Afterwards Tyler walked Bonnie to class with his hand in her back pocket and passed her a note as he left her at the door.

 _Dear Bonnie,_

 _You're beautiful when you smile. You have the kind of smile that people can't help but smile back at. I could be having the worst day and seeing you smile makes it somehow worthwhile. I don't know what it is but it just carries enough warmth to make people feel lighter. Don't let him take it away from you. When you forget and he does, I'll do everything I can to bring it back. Even if it means watching John Hughes movies and putting up with archaic grandma references._

 _Love,_

 _Tyler_

Tyler liked her smile. He'd called her beautiful. Fake or real Bonnie read the note over and over again, loving the way it made her feel. Bonnie smiled for the rest of the day.

 **:::**

Friday night wasn't just Movie Night but also the first game of the season. Bonnie offered to postpone Move Night as the team usually went to Mystic Grill after the first game of the season win or lose. Tyler had objected emphatically. "I can hang out with the team at the Grill any night. This is the first Movie Night I've been invited to and you're not backing out on me, Bennett."

Tyler assured her that they could just order food to take to her house and that everyone was as excited as he was. He only called her Bonnie in the notes he wrote to her. It somehow made them more personal. She had thought about throwing them away but she ended up keeping them in a drawer in her desk. She still hadn't found her hatbox and expected to never see it again. The latest one had read:

 _Dear Bonnie,  
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if we'd stayed friends. If we'd stayed close. Sometimes when we're together I don't feel like any time has passed at all. The only thing that reminds me is I remember how much I missed you once we stopped being close. I think, when this is over, I'll miss you more than I did before it started. We can still be friends right?_

 _Love,_

 _Tyler_

Bonnie normally didn't answer his letters but that one felt like it needed one. Still she wasn't sure yet what her answer would be. She wanted to be friends but she wasn't certain where they'd be once this whole fake dating thing ended. She was sure that she had missed him too, even if it took spending time with him to realize it.

The night before Movie Night was a bustle of preparation as Bonnie prepped and baked cookies. She also had to press her cheer-leading uniform for the pep rally before the game. Tyler ended up helping with the cookies after her Grams had kicked him out of the garden for the day telling him to spend time with Bonnie. She'd been making mint chocolate for Luka, blondies for Caroline and gingersnaps for Stefan. The prep took concentration and precision as she wanted to get each recipe right but Tyler had distracted her as she measured out cups of flour by cracking eggs in an unnecessarily loud manner against the counter.

Bonnie looked up at him where he stood on the other side of the kitchen island. She almost wanted to laugh. He was wearing her dad's "Kiss the Cook" apron and pouting in a way that reminded her of the kids she and Matt used to tell they couldn't go in the deep end during the summer they worked as lifeguards.

Bonnie blew a stray strand of hair that had slipped out of her ponytail out of her face and dusted her hands off on her own pink apron. She wasn't dressed very fashion forward at the moment wearing an oversized Run-D.M.C t-shirt and a pair of her dad's old basketball shorts but she didn't feel like she had to try as hard as she sometimes felt she did at school when they were alone. Tyler was in sweats and a sleeveless white shirt and still managed to look like he was trying. Stupid handsome idiot. "Something wrong?" Bonnie asked.

Tyler shrugged as he cracked another egg. "I mean," he frowned, "I'm supposed to be your boyfriend right?" At Bonnie's nod he continued, "I know it's just pretend but… don't you think that you should be making my favorite cookies too. How's it going to look when you're baking for other guys but not me? I know I'm not your precious Stefan but you know what I like too. Or at least you did."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. She'd been waiting on him to ask. "Do you remember that time you stayed the night at my Grams when we were like eight and we got all of the stuff to make your favorite chocolate chip cookies and you crept into the kitchen and ate all of the chocolate chips before she could use them and didn't tell anyone and ended up throwing them up after dinner."

Tyler winced and scowled. "So you're not going to make me cookies because of something that happened when we were eight?"

Bonnie couldn't hold in her laugh any longer. "No that's not what I meant," she said, "I made the dough early so I knew I would have chocolate chips left to use. It's in the refrigerator. I made yours first because as your fake girlfriend I knew you'd be expecting it. I made it early because you're not the only one who remembers extremely embarrassing things from our youth and acts accordingly."

Tyler beamed surprised and delighted at her. He wasn't even offended by the teasing. "Touché, Bennett."

Bonnie's Grams ended up inviting Tyler to stay for dinner and he didn't comment on the cleanse thing even though they ended up eating bean burgers and fries made out of butternut squash. He was very flattering of the meal and helped Bonnie clear the table.

Afterwards they had watched a movie in what Tyler claimed to be a Movie Night rehearsal. Tyler had asked her about her movie kiss list which led to them watching _Some Kind of Wonderful_ which had the number one most iconic kiss scene of all time between Keith played by Eric Stoltz and his tomboy best friend Watts played by Mary Stuart Masterson.

In the movie Keith, an artsy outcast who spends most of the movie covered in paint, trying to circumvent the expectations of his father and pining after popular girl Amanda Jones, finally scores a date with said popular girl who only agrees to go to get back at her ex-boyfriend Hardy who's an asshole in more ways than one. Hardy then invites them to a party where he plans on jumping Keith. Watts who spends majority of the movie being a general badass, pining after Keith, and playing the drums in montage scenes tries to convince Keith to stop pursuing Amanda but also ends up aiding him in his pursuit because she loves him that much.

In the scene that Bonnie dubbed the most iconic kiss in cinematic history, between Keith and Watts, Watts offers to give Keith a kissing lesson to help him impress Amanda. Its classic manipulation and clearly an excuse to kiss Keith but Keith being the oblivious cinnamon roll that he is goes along with it not realizing its more than what it is. The dialogue was pitch perfect the entire scene and the kiss itself was one of the best demonstrations of onscreen chemistry that Bonnie had ever scene. Even Tyler was impressed, though it was mostly at Watts's ability to manipulate Keith into the kiss in the first place.

The most important part of the scene wasn't just the kiss itself. It was the fact that the kiss inspired Keith to realize that what he and Watts had could possibly be more than friendship or as Bonnie put it, he was, "Obviously too stupid and too much of a guy to realize he was crazy in love with Watts all along."

After the movie Tyler and Bonnie loaded the dishwasher as they discussed the scene, Tyler said, "It's not a bad idea you know."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow as she rinsed off a plate in the sink before loading it. "What do you mean?"

"Practicing kissing," Tyler said, "I mean it'd help us look more authentic as couple at least." He reached over Bonnie to pick up a cup. "You still get stiff when I kiss you. I know it's only been a few days but it's kind of awkward for you still. I can tell."

"Is it really that noticeable?" Bonnie asked. She'd thought that she'd looked comfortable with it. She felt comfortable for the most part. Highly aware of him at all times but comfortable, which was weird.

"Not unless you're paying attention or are experienced like me," he said placing a hand over his chest. "But I mean if you feel like we do okay then its cool. I just thought maybe since we're trying to trick everyone we could at least try to work at it."

Bonnie stopped what she was doing and placed her hands on her hips. "I know what you're trying to do," she laughed, "I'm not that naïve. I'm not falling for it. The contract states we only kiss in front of people and no tongue. If you're trying to pull a Watts you have the wrong audience and if I'm going to reenact, not just a movie kiss but the movie kiss to end all movie kisses, then it's going to be with my _real_ boyfriend one day. Saving something for someone real. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it."

Tyler shrugged, the picture of nonchalance. "That's all fine and good," he conceded, "I guess it makes sense. Even though there wasn't anyone before me and you kind of swore off dating so who knows when the next guy will come along. If we're thinking about the right now, then it's you and me, right? Like you said before, if you want to sell us we have to look and act the part. I get why it's hard for you. You don't have a lot of experience. You're not a bad kisser or anything, just kind of stiff." Bonnie frowned at the assessment, "I just thought we could have a little fun and practice. We're comfortable with the friend stuff because of before but we can't pull of acting like a couple if you look startled every time I kiss you. I really thought it could help you relax if we tried it out while we were alone. Besides, acting out the kiss could be fun. Your favorite kiss at that and no one has to know."

Bonnie tried to stand her ground. She really did. But he honestly had a point. He was way more of a natural at the PDA thing and she honestly wasn't sure when she would ever have a real boyfriend to do things like that with. She had vowed off love before and so what made her think that after this deal with Tyler was over she would suddenly be ready and that guys would line up, especially ones willing to reenact movie scenes with her just for fun on a whim.

Besides that she trusted Tyler. She felt like she could do something like that with him and not feel silly or ridiculous. He was teasing her, and more than likely exaggerating about her lack of kissing skills but he just thought it would be fun to try and help them with their act. What harm could it be really?

Bonnie stared at him for a long time before sighing. "Alright fine," she said, "But we have to have the music too and we're just doing the scene. It isn't real. Outside of this moment the contract still stands." Playing it out like an actual scene in a movie would help her not to overthink it so much the way that she did when they were in front of everyone.

"Deal," Tyler said looking smug. He surprised her by picking her up and lifting her up to sit onto the countertop. It made sense though, because Watts was sitting on a steel drum in the scene.

"No one finds out about this," Bonnie pressed as she settled herself on the countertop, "Ever."

Tyler nodded sagely. "First rule of Fight Club."

Bonnie shook her head. "Still don't get that reference."

"You will after tomorrow." He grinned. He looked around the room, likely to make sure her Grams wasn't around before turning back to Bonnie. "So about your kissing technique," he said, "you don't have to do this if you don't want to. If you know, you think you can deliver a kiss that kills."

Bonnie stopped sifting through her playlist for the song on her phone and looked at Tyler, one eyebrow raised. He was quoting the lines. Paraphrasing but it was the same thing. She fought the urge to laugh. They were really doing the scene then. "You think I can't?" Bonnie grinned.

"If you say you can then you probably can," Tyler said sounding deliberately doubtful.

Bonnie channeled her inner Keith as she replied with the line on cue. "I mean I'm no expert."

Tyler shrugged, leaning against the sink. "It's cool," he said, "I was just going to work on it with you but if you're comfortable," he crossed his arms over his chest, "Great." He wasn't a bad Watts actually.

Bonnie found the song, "She Loves Me" by Stephen Duffy, and pressed play. She set her phone down beside her. "How do you work on it?" She quoted. Bonnie couldn't help but feel a little giddy. Who wouldn't, acting out their favorite scene from their favorite movie? It had nothing to do with Tyler at all.

Tyler cleared his throat. "Pretend I'm a guy," he said, "I mean pretend I'm _him_." He took a step closer as the music filled the kitchen, " _Stefan_." Bonnie bit back a laugh as Tyler's brows knitted together in a mock brooding expression, "I know it's a big stretch but try it." His voice deepened to imitate Stefan's and she snickered.

"Idiot," she muttered. She loved Stefan more than anyone but even she had to admit that he was a bit much with the brooding at times. He was sometimes more intense than the moment warranted. Tyler captured the expression better than she thought he would.

Tyler laughed as he maneuvered himself to stand between her legs where she sat on the countertop. "Stay in character," he chastised. Again the position of his body was a part of the scene but somehow having him in that position and that close felt like something other than play acting. "Alright," Tyler said, "What do you do with your hands?"

Bonnie cleared her throat and attempted to get back in character. "It depends," she said.

Tyler shook his head. "It doesn't depend. They go around his neck." Bonnie complied. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he stepped into her body even closer. "Look into my eyes."

The cue for the scene was for Bonnie to laugh. Keith had laughed. Hadn't been able to take it seriously at first. However, as Bonnie looked into Tyler's eyes she didn't feel any amusement. Bonnie felt calm and on edge all at once. She felt excited and surprisingly content. She felt like she was lost but she didn't mind it as she stuck her tongue out to wet her lips and Tyler's eyes lowered to follow the movement.

"He'll probably do this," Tyler said as he placed his hands on her hips and for a moment she forgot who the "he" Tyler was referring to was.

"How do you know?" Bonnie swallowed. She felt her pulse quicken. It was stupid. It wasn't like this would be their first kiss. It was the music, the scene. That's all.

"In spite of your concern for my movie viewership practices," Tyler whispered, "I watch a lot of them." He was staying in character but making the scene their own and she wondered at how good an actor he truly was. "Close your eyes."

Bonnie hesitated a moment before her eyes fell shut. His lips pressed against herself softly at first, hesitant. A perfect mimicry of the start of the movie kiss that she loved watching so much. Bonnie's breath hitched as his lips pressed against hers more firmly. His tongue shot out and slid into her mouth slowly, warmly. She wasn't thinking about the contract breaking as his hands found her hair and tugged her ponytail loose. She wasn't thinking about outside viewers as her legs came up to wrap around his waist and she ran her fingers through his hair. She imagined the camera panning around them, capturing the moment that his hands found her hips again and moved around to fist in the material of her shorts. The music filled her ears and Bonnie felt high as she pulled Tyler closer even though the scene called for her to push him away or him to push her away, she wasn't sure anymore.

Bonnie didn't actually push him away until she heard a throat clearing. Tyler was slow to step back even though she pushed at his chest fairly hard. When she opened her eyes he looked at her a bit dazed and murmured, "What?" and Bonnie knew that it wasn't a part of the scene.

Bonnie turned to her Grams standing in the doorway of the kitchen. The old woman was looking far too amused for Bonnie's liking. "Sorry to interrupt but Tyler your mother called. She expected you home an hour ago."

Bonnie turned back to Tyler and he looked genuinely confused before shaking his head to clear it. "Oh right," he said after a moment. "My dad likes me home early the day before game night."

Bonnie nodded. "I'll walk you to the door," she said and Tyler was already holding out his hand for her to take before the sentence was out of her mouth. Bonnie took it and he helped her down from the countertop. He kept her hand is his as they made their way out of the kitchen.

Tyler leaned down to kiss her Grams on the cheek as he passed. "Don't be a stranger now," Sheila said, "I'm glad you're coming around again. We missed you around here."

"We", Grams had said and Bonnie honestly couldn't argue. Tyler smiled that winning smile that he did when he campaigned with his dad during the election season but his eyes were soft and full of adoration as he looked down at Sheila. "I missed you too," he said, "I'll be around. We're dating now so you'll won't be able to keep me away."

Sheila shrugged. "It was hard to keep you away before." Before. There was a before now. There was a before when they were still close. An after when they weren't. Now there was a present when they were something else entirely that was part fake in terms of romance but Bonnie hoped real in terms of recreating their bond. She wondered what had really broken it to begin with but this whole thing was too new and too up in the air to ask.

When they made it out to the porch and Bonnie shut the door behind them Tyler spoke. "You're good by the way. At the whole kissing thing I mean…I was exaggerating about the kiss thing you know," he whispered, "You're not stiff. You're actually kind of perfect." His eyes lowered to her lips in a way that made Bonnie think that he might kiss her again. Bonnie felt her mouth go dry and then he had to ruin the moment, "Especially for someone who's only ever kissed me. So I guess you have me to thank for your skills."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "You're so full of yourself. It's a good thing we're going back to the rules. Your head doesn't need to get any bigger." The rule reminder was more for herself than it was for him. They stared at each other for a long time and Bonnie felt something in the air that she couldn't name. Tyler gave her a slow smile as he stuffed his hands in his pocket and she was reminded of the boy she once knew. The boy that was her favorite person. "Yes." She blurted suddenly.

"Huh?" Tyler smiled bemused.

"Your note," Bonnie said, shuffling her feet and looking out at the night sky nervously, "When this is over. I want us to still be friends. I've always wanted us to be friends, Tyler." It was weird using his first name but in the moment it felt right.

He gave another slow smile and then bent down and kissed her forehead. He looked equal parts pleased and relieved. "Then we'll be friends, Bonnie," he promised. "Always." He never called her Bonnie outside of the letters but she was glad to hear him say her name in that moment.

Bonnie wanted so bad to believe him as he stepped back and began to walk down her porch steps. "Goodnight, Bennett."

"Goodnight, Lockwood." Bonnie watched him as he got into his car and continued to watch as his headlights disappeared from her driveway.

She'd gotten her friend back but as she looked out at the flowers in the front yard and saw the tulips Stefan had helped her Grams plant over the summer, she wondered if it had cost her another one to regain him.

 **:::**

The day of the game, Bonnie got her letter to Ben McKittrick in the mail, marked return to sender. Apparently his family had lost their house and he was now living out of the hotel and so Tyler was kind of right about him being broke. Bonnie felt bad for his situation but relieved that at least one of her letters had made it back to her without causing her any further problems or embarrassment. All in all things seemed to be looking up.

Like all of the cheerleading squad, Bonnie wore her uniform to school. The day passed quickly and things went per usual. She ran into Vicki Donovan once on the way to Trig and the girl didn't have an insult for her, she gave Bonnie a once over and kept walking. The look gave Bonnie a chill down her spine and a part of her wondered when Vicki would actually verbalize whatever was brewing behind that gaze of hers.

When Bonnie mentioned it to Caroline before the pep rally, the blonde had rolled her eyes. "She's dating some college guy now," she said, "As soon as he dumps her or she goes on her next bender you'll get more of a reaction I'm sure." Bonnie couldn't say that she was looking forward to it.

When Elena was still there they had all gotten into the habit of painting their faces before the games. It had been Elena's idea to start doing it. She said it helped build school moral but honestly Bonnie had always thought it was an excuse to for Elena to paint Stefan's number on her face and for her to sit in his lap as she painted lines beneath his eyes and for them to show off their whole cutest couple persona. She'd never told Elena this of course, but it didn't mean that she didn't feel that way.

With Elena gone Stefan didn't have anyone to paint his face though and as Bonnie watched Caroline and Matt draw pictures on each other's cheeks with paint markers she thought about offering but then thought better of it almost immediately. Stefan wasn't her boyfriend and for once Bonnie had someone's number to wear and someone's face to paint. For once she wasn't going to be the one watching from the sidelines.

That thought in mind Bonnie went over to wear Tyler was sitting on the stage where the couch had given his speech to rile the crowd up and waiting for everyone to clear the way so that the players could head towards the field. As soon as Bonnie made it to the stage Tyler pulled her into his lap. It felt a little strange at first but Bonnie became more comfortable as she worked on painting the lines beneath Tyler's eyes.

"I saw your dad in the audience earlier," Tyler said, as Bonnie worked. On one of his cheeks she drew a heart with the letter "B" in the middle. "He doesn't usually make it to games."

Bonnie shrugged. "He's trying to be more present I guess," she said, "He said he doesn't want to look up and realize that the only thing he remembers about my high school experience is me graduating next year. He also thinks I should try out for the fall play. Says it'll look good on college applications."

"That's cool that he wants to be there for you I guess," Tyler smiled as he took the marker from her hands, "I get how it can be weird though, when you're not used to having him around. My dad's here too and my mom and my Uncle Mason. Mason usually shows up so that's not weird but whenever my parents come to stuff like this I never know if they're doing it for me or if they're trying to keep up appearances."

Bonnie nodded as Tyler tilted her head so that he could draw on her cheek. His number, "1" on one side and a heart with a "T" at the center on the other. "I get that. But at least they show up right. That's what's important. At least that's what Grams says."

"She's probably right," Tyler said, she usually is, "Why wouldn't you want to try out for the fall play?"

Bonnie had to lean in to hear him over the crowd and it felt almost as if they were in a world all to themselves, the calm in the middle of the chaotic jubilation around them. "I do," she admitted, "They're doing _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ , it's one of my favorites. I just…I mean can you imagine me on stage in front of everyone. It's not going to happen."

"Yeah I could actually," Tyler grinned, "You're dramatic enough." Bonnie elbowed him and he laughed, "Seriously though, you cheer in front of a huge crowd every night. What's the difference?"

"The difference is that I'm just a part of the group," Bonnie said, "Just another cheerleader. I've never had to lead a routine or anything like that. I can just blend in and still be a part of something. When you're one stage, people see you for you even if you're playing a character. You're vulnerable and open to criticism and-"

"And that scares you," Tyler finished. He put the lid on the marker. "Then you should definitely do it. Be the omen remember? Besides it's just an audition until you get the part and if you get the part you'll know you're good enough which you will be so being on stage in front of everyone will be exactly where you belong. You watch enough movies and know enough about characters and love stories to bring one to life. You'd be a natural and if you do this not only will I commit to giving up my free time to running lines with you but I will be there front row opening night cheering my ass off in a way that will be so obnoxious I'll embarrass not only you but everyone we know."

Bonnie thought about it. The worse that could happen would be that she didn't get the part, she didn't have it now so what would really be the difference. Besides that he was right, she understood the characters enough to bring the story to life. She could finally be a leading lady and it wouldn't cost her anything to do it. "Alright," she agreed, "I'll do it."

Tyler was about to respond when Coach Tanner called out to Tyler. "Lockwood move your ass, we don't have all day!" Bonnie rolled her eyes and she glared at the man. His neck was still heavily scared from the car accident he'd been involved in a year prior. He had been near death and Alaric had replaced him as their History teacher during his recovery. He'd come back and took the slot as the Gym teacher instead and was unfortunately still responsible for coaching as well.

Tyler slipped Bonnie a note as he left the stage to follow the rest of the team. Bonnie unwrapped it and read it and laughed.

 _Dear Bonnie,_

 _You look hot in uniform. Like really hot! I mean DAMN! ;)_

 _Love,_

 _Tyler_

"This is poetry, Lockwood," Bonnie called sarcastically, "I think I might cry!"

"Never said I was Shakespeare, Bennett!" Tyler blew her a kiss as he headed towards the field and Bonnie shook her head. Folding the note she went to join the rest of the squad.

Bonnie didn't even have to pretend to be peppy while the game was underway. She waved at her Grams and her dad in the stands. Lexi and Greta Martin had shown up and surprisingly instead of hiding out in the bleachers per usual Jeremy and Anna were sitting with them and Luka and Hayley. Jeremy beamed at her as he waved. Like her, he seemed to be enjoying finally being a part of something and she hoped that she wasn't the only one who kept the friends she was making after she and Tyler ended their fake relationship.

The game went in their favor up until right after half time. The opposing team apparently were sore about being behind because right when the game started up again Matt took a hit that sent him down pretty hard. He recovered fairly quickly but the referee seemed reluctant to flag the play. Not only was Tanner pissed but Tyler was as well and both of them got into the ref's face fairly quickly and Bonnie knew it wouldn't do either of them any good if the yelling and fighting continued, especially from the lethal look on Mayor Lockwood's face.

While Caroline left the squad to check on Matt, Bonnie went to get in between her fake boyfriend and the referee. Bonnie had almost gotten to them when she was suddenly pulled back. She turned to see Stefan as he grabbed her arm. "You don't want to get in the middle of that." Stefan said, frowning.

"What else am I supposed to do? You know how Tyler gets when he's upset." They all knew. Tyler's temper had gotten him in trouble on more than one occasion and Bonnie didn't want it to cost him his spot on the team, especially since in this case his anger was valid.

"That's exactly why you don't need to be involved." Stefan said, sounding worried but Bonnie couldn't worry about his concern because she saw Mayor Lockwood and Mason Lockwood leaving the stands and she knew if she didn't intervene there would be trouble.

Bonnie pulled her hand away from Stefan's. "I'm going," she declared, "So either come with me or get out of my way."

Stefan opted to come with her and they were followed by the rest of the team including Matt with Caroline at his side but it was Bonnie that squeezed her way in between the arguing men and Tyler just as Tanner raised his clipboard in a threat. "That's enough," Bonnie said with enough authority to stop them in their tracks and apparently surprised them enough for them all to look a bit sheepish as she glared at them. She turned to the referee and was surprised to see that she knew his face. "Mr. Jordan?"

Connor Jordan was a frequent customer of her grandmother's and Bonnie knew right then that she could use the fact to her advantage. "Hey Bonnie," he said looking down in embarrassment.

"You know this asshole?" Tyler spat and Bonnie turned to give him a look just as Connor's anger began to rile up again.

"Let me handle this," Bonnie hissed in Tyler's direction. "I got this. Reign it in and trust me."

Bonnie expected Tyler to argue because not many people could calm him down once he was up but he just took a deep breath and nodded. "I trust you." He said. Bonnie looked around and found that she wasn't the only one surprised by it. His father and uncle had arrived by them and looked between Tyler and Bonnie in shock. Mason's expression turned into a knowing grin and he just shook his head laughing a little as Tyler placed a supportive hand on Bonnie's shoulder and Bonnie turned back to Connor.

"I know, Mr. Jordan," she said, calmly, "He a customer of my Grams's. He gets these rashes in a certain _area_ , when there's too much _friction."_ Her tone was casual but she could tell she had struck a nerve as Connor scratched the back of his neck and looked uneasy. "Not exactly the most convenient thing for man that wants to participate in certain _activities._ " Bonnie heard snickers all around her but kept going as if she didn't. "He's always been a reasonable person and I know my Grams and I can always count on him to be a fine and upstanding man." Bonnie looked out into the crowd and waved to Sheila. "Hi Grams!"

"Hi baby," Sheila called back, "Hi Connor, dear!" Even though the people in the stands couldn't hear their conversation Bonnie wasn't surprised that Grams had picked up on the situation.

Connor swallowed. "Hi, Ms. Sheila!" He called back before turning back to Bonnie. "Listen Bonnie I'm just trying to do my job here."

Bonnie nodded. "I know you are," she said, "Which is why I know you are going to flag that play." Bonnie looked towards the opposing team and her eyes narrowed upon seeing who the cheer coach was. "Even if the other team's cheerleading coach is the reason your friction burns are so very prevalent these days. Because I know that she'll be understanding of you doing your job and making a fair call. My Grams on the other hand won't be as understanding if you don't and as her lack of understanding will limit your use of a certain _area_ , I think the other coach would rather you do the right thing in this case. Don't you?"

Connor's face flushed and he cleared his throat. "If you all would excuse me," he said, "I have a penalty to call."

As soon as he walked away Bonnie was surrounded by so many cheers and voices she was a bit overwhelmed until Tyler pulled her into his side. "That was masterful."

"I tend to agree," Mayor Lockwood said as he stepped up to them and Bonnie felt Tyler stiffen behind her, "I've met politicians less cut throat and yet you managed to seem almost sweet while doing it. I'm impressed." He glanced at Tyler, "I'm also grateful that you managed to keep this one in line. I'd like to invite you to dinner with my family, Ms. Bennett. I'll let Tyler know the date and the time."

"Yes sir," Bonnie said and watched as both the mayor and Mason walked away, Mason winking over his shoulder. Bonnie wasn't sure what to feel. She had likely saved Tyler from his father's wrath but the mayor being impressed by her? Richard Lockwood wasn't impressed by anyone.

Bonnie only had a moment to process it before Tyler was turning her around and kissing her. He kissed her right there in front of everyone and then murmured as he pulled back. "You have no idea how incredible you are, Bennett."

Bonnie smiled. "Just get out there and kick their asses, Lockwood."

Tyler turned to the rest of the team. "You heard my girl! Let's go!"

As the team gathered Stefan hesitated a moment. He looked at Bonnie in a way she had never seen him look at her before. It was like he was seeing her for the first time, a sort of happy surprised expression you got when you received something unexpected then he looked from her to Tyler and back again and the expression was gone replaced by something sadder.

Bonnie couldn't dwell on it too long because then Caroline was there hugging her and asking, "When did you get so ballsy? I don't know where all of this is coming from but you give me life! If Tyler brings out this side of you then you guys can never break up."

Bonnie decided not to comment. Their breakup would be inevitable, no matter what kind of person that Bonnie became while they were pretending to be together.

The thing about the act was, there were scenes that Bonnie knew were supposed to occur to play the part but she was still somehow surprised by. They won the game and Bonnie knew that in every teen movie where the main love interest was a jock there was a kiss scene at the end of the big game. It usually played out with the jock picking up the female lead and swinging her around while they kissed with the crowd cheering in the background, but none of it mattered because it was all about them in the end. She knew to expect that moment and it happened but it played out so different than Bonnie expected.

Tyler didn't run off the field when the game was over and he didn't pick her up and swing her around. He walked towards her, through the sea of people with purpose and they parted for him as Bonnie stood there staring like an idiot and then he was there kissing her. Not one big consuming kiss but soft kisses on his lips on her cheeks on her face and eyelids. Kisses like Bonnie was something precious. Kisses that the team would likely give him shit for later but Tyler didn't seem to care. Their scene ended when Coach Tanner presented not Tyler but Bonnie with the game ball. "Couldn't have done it without you, Bennett."

Bonnie knew then, without planning or scripts or direction, things would never go as she expected. She found as Tyler lifted her up on his shoulders and carried her through the crowed, she didn't mind all that much. The only thing that upset Bonnie about the moment was that she wouldn't be able to tell Elena.

 _ **End Notes: Watch the Keith and Watts scene, actually just watch the movie it's so sweet! Alright this chapter ran long so I had to break it into parts. Next part movie night and a few more Stefonnie moments. Doesn't mean Tonnie is taking a back seat at all. Some Jeremy and Luka next chapter and also Lexi, Hayley and Caroline pick up on stuff Bonnie doesn't during Movie Night and Elena calls and is surprised with what she discovers! Thanks for the love guys! You're amazing! Review!**_


	4. PART FOUR: FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (PART II)

**Title:** To All the Boys I've Love Before

 **Rating:** T

 **Genre:** AU/All Human

 **Pairing(s):** Bonnie/Tyler, Bonnie/Stefan, Caroline/Matt, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Luka, etc..

 **Summary:** Bonnie Bennett keeps her love letters in her mother's old hatbox. Not ones she's received but ones she's written to every boy she's ever loved-there are five in all. The letters are meant for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed out and suddenly Bonnie's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

 **Warnings:** All Human, Fake/Pretend Relationships, Language, Fluff, etc.

 _ **Author's Note: Hello all, at long last here's the update! I have been super busy so it took a while. I wasn't able to edit so hopefully there aren't too many errors here! Thanks for all the feedback and I am glad you all are enjoying this as much as I am enjoying writing it! Happy reading!**_

 **PART FOUR || FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (CAMERA ACTION) PART II**

" _Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that."_

― **Ally Condie, Matched**

One of the most overused tropes in the genre of romance, and also one of Bonnie's all-time favorites, was the childhood sweethearts trope. The trope was depicted in a number of ways. There was, the best friends turned lovers. Then there were the childhood sweethearts that experienced first love and were separated for, insert dramatic reason here, and then reunited later in life to rekindle the love they lost. Nicholas Sparks was rather fond of depicting both, in a rather formulaic way that Bonnie loved to watch but felt was lazy writing and outside of the dynamic between Allie and Noah in _The Notebook_ , while sweet, felt unrealistic. Allie and Noah had romance, but they had fights too; they argued, they connected, they knew each other in that way that didn't always need words, and when they were separated and came back together, everything wasn't cut and dry, there was conflict. Even when Allie found the perfect guy in Lon, the audience could tell that their connection wasn't the same and it was clear to both the audience and Allie why Lon wasn't the one. Noah and Allie's relationship took work and it was flawed but felt true because of it.

However, Noah and Allie were not Bonnie's favorite depiction of childhood sweethearts. Also, even though they were her number one onscreen kiss, Keith and Watts weren't it either. Bonnie's favorite depiction of the childhood sweethearts trope was Monica and Quincy of _Love & Basketball_. Monica and Quincy first connected as children and their connection was a push and pull dynamic full of conflict from the start but there was an unmistakable draw there. In high school Quincy was the popular jock surrounded by girls and Monica was the tomboy who couldn't manage to reign in her emotions that quietly pined while looking on from the outside. One of Bonnie's favorite moments was the makeover that happened before the dance, not just because it inspired both Monica and Quincy to act on their feelings for one another but because honestly, the makeover trope was something that wasn't often seen in movies with characters of color, she'd be lucky if she could find a romance where a girl that didn't fit the stereotypical romantic lead role was depicted as desirable at all, especially if she was black.

As much as Bonnie loved the makeover trope and the friends to lovers trope, the thing that she loved most about the movie was the way that the overall dynamic between Monica and Quincy was depicted. Their connection as children was different than their connection in high school. Their connection in high school was different than their connection in college. Their connection in college was different than their connection as adults. Yet they were drawn together over and over again. They reconnected and relearned one another. The audience got to see both their journeys and struggles, together and as individuals. They both got to grow as characters outside of the couple, Monica more so. Their relationship was messy, and raw and real and the movie didn't shy away from any of it. It was both realistic and emotional to watch because not only was the connection so strong that neither of them could deny it, but Monica fought for it and Bonnie had always envied her that. That last game between them, where Monica gave her all and put it all out there even knowing she could get rejected because Quincy had found his perfect girl, and in the end he'd let her win because in spite of his pride and everything he'd said during the challenge, he saw what the audience had seen the whole time, Monica loved him and would always love him and she'd been fighting for him all along.

Bonnie had admired their relationship for a long time. Not so much because of the love aspect of the relationship, though that too, but Monica for being willing to fight for someone that she cared about and felt connected to, no matter how hard they tried to push her away.

When Bonnie had fallen for Tyler as a young girl she had been hurt when he'd pulled away from her. She'd been angry. She'd felt stupid for caring about him at all. She'd been sad. She'd missed him so much that she ached with it. She missed him so much that she had to write her feelings down and then push them down until she didn't think about them; and couldn't feel them at all. She'd accepted their new reality when they became distant, when they only talked in passing or in group settings. When they made snide remarks to each other and Bonnie began to forget what it felt like to know someone and be known. She began to forget what it felt like to have a favorite person. The one thing that Bonnie hadn't done was fight.

When Tyler pushed Bonnie away, she hadn't pushed back. She'd known him well enough to know that something was wrong. When he began to distance himself, after the first initial days of trying to figure out why she'd given up. She had loved him, she was sure of it, but she hadn't been willing to try to hold onto him once he was slipping away. Perhaps she'd been too scared. She was young, a child. Perhaps, because of her mother's abandonment, she'd been waiting on him to leave her all along anyway.

Now they were beginning to be friends again, but he was different, and she was different, it would likely never be the same. Even though it wouldn't be the same, they both were willing to rebuild. Maybe it'd be better. Maybe they'd learn from the past and move one. Bonnie couldn't change what had happened with Tyler, but she was afraid that she was making the same mistake with Stefan.

Before Stefan had been anything to Bonnie, he'd been her friend. She wanted to remain friends with him if nothing else. She felt that she'd made a mess of things, but her feelings were a bit mixed. As much as it had pained her to see Stefan and Elena together, Bonnie had always been there for them both. She'd kept her feelings for Stefan and many of her feelings about their relationship to herself. She'd acted as a confidant and a go between for each of them. She had acted as a third wheel and a hanger on, and she'd never complained. She'd been the only one outside of her friends to not be in a relationship and she'd never complained. She'd made time for them and she'd been there for each of them. It just seemed like, now that Bonnie was in a relationship as far as he knew, Stefan wasn't willing to do the same for her.

Bonnie wasn't shutting Stefan out. They still had lunch together, even if it was in a group now. She still talked to him and he'd still been invited to Movie Night. She still made it a point to include him, even as she was making new friends and as far as he knew, starting a new relationship with Tyler. It was Stefan that was giving her push back, it was Stefan that was having trouble adjusting to the situation. Even if it had something to do with her letter, Bonnie had adjusted for him and Elena in spite of her feelings for him and so why would knowing about Bonnie's feelings for him, which were as far Stefan knew past tense, keep him from adapting for her sake?

Bonnie was willing to fight for their friendship, she loved him enough to do that. However, she wasn't sure how much she'd be willing to fight if he wasn't willing to meet her halfway. She'd been willing to push her feelings aside for him and Elena and even if what she had with Tyler was fake, she had hoped it wouldn't affect her and Stefan's friendship. She wasn't even asking him to give them his blessing, just to not stop being her friend just because he didn't like who she was supposedly dating.

Bonnie had that thought in mind as she and Tyler entered Mystic Grill. They were stopped by several people from school as they walked in, on the way to the counter to pick up their order for Movie Night. As Tyler was stopped by one of the members of the football team Bonnie spotted Stefan sitting alone at a familiar table in the back.

It was one she'd sat at with him and Elena many nights and Bonnie sighed as she eyed him. They'd spent nights there talking and laughing, nights that inevitably ended in Bonnie saying goodbye and leaving, because one could only play the third wheel for so long.

Bonnie squeezed Tyler's hand to gain his attention. He had gotten to shower and change after the game, while Bonnie was still in her uniform, he was in a t-shirt, jeans, and his letterman jacket, which shouldn't have looked that good but honestly he looked good in everything, the asshole. He looked down at her immediately, even though the player who'd stopped them was still talking. "What's up, Bennett?"

Bonnie gestured her head in Stefan's direction. "I'll be right back," she told him.

Tyler looked in the direction as well and frowned. "Don't be long," he said, "We're going to see him in an hour or so anyway."

That was kind of the point. She didn't want things to be awkward at Movie Night and so she wanted to clear the air beforehand. Still Bonnie nodded as she let go of Tyler's hand, only slightly surprised when he pulled her back to kiss her quickly on the lips before letting her go again. They were still putting on a show after all.

Bonnie weaved her way through the crowd and was stopped several times by people commenting on what had happened at the game. Bonnie took it all in stride, though she was nowhere near used to the attention.

Bonnie eventually made it to Stefan, and he looked up as she reached the table as if he were expecting her. Perhaps he'd seen her coming. He smiled as Bonnie took her customary seat across from him and Bonnie found herself smiling in return.

"Hey superstar," Stefan grinned, "I'm surprised you were even able to get to me with all your new fans demanding your attention."

Bonnie found herself blushing. "Yeah, well," she shrugged, "That's what happens when you call the ref out on getting a dick rash in front of a crowd at a football game. Even if it was veiled."

Stefan let out a surprised laugh. "I still can't believe you said all that," he shook his head, "Damon couldn't hear you from the bleachers but when I told him about it afterwards, even he was proud."

"If I had known it would get me so much attention, I would've just let Tyler bite the guy's head off," Bonnie sighed, "Especially if I'd known my behavior would be backed up by Damon."

Bonnie expected another laugh but instead Stefan just stared at her with a small smile on his face. "No, you wouldn't have," he said, "You would've gotten involved either way. That's what you do for the people that you care about. I wouldn't expect anything less. Not from you."

Stefan surprised her even further as he reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. Bonnie watched as he threaded their fingers together. He never really touched her that way before, no small meaningful gestures. It was a kiss on the cheek here and a hug there, almost as if she was his little sister. Somehow, as his thumb stroked over her fingers, this felt different.

"I've been all over the place lately and I feel like I keep apologizing," Stefan sighed, "But this needs to be said. I'm sorry. I've been having a hard time with all of this because…as selfish as this is going to sound, you're starting to show people this side of yourself that only I and the people closest to you ever got to see and that's scares me because I feel like it's bringing you farther away from me. I realized…well Lexi threatened to kick my ass and then I realized that me making a big deal about this is pushing you away even more and just making things worse and I meant what I said when I said that I don't want to lose you."

Bonnie squeezed his hand. "I don't want to lose you either. I…I just…I don't feel bad about branching out and showing more of myself. I feel good about it. I'm doing things that scare me and it's weird and it's new but…I want to keep pushing myself to do more and if we're going to be friends then I need you to be okay with that."

"I am," Stefan insisted and at Bonnie's look he smiled, "I _will be_. You're right it's weird but it's not what I need to adjust to…it's just seeing you with Tyler. I didn't even know you guys were friends before, but Caroline keeps mentioning how close you were, and you act so different around him."

Bonnie frowned. "I don't," she said, and then, "Even if I do, we're dating. Of course, I'd act different. You acted different around Elena than you did with me. I never pointed it out to you." She hadn't but she'd noticed.

Stefan stared at their joined hands. "It's not the same thing," he said. Bonnie opened her mouth to object and Stefan squeezed her hand. "Just let me finish, please," he said, his eyes meeting hers and Bonnie couldn't say no and so he continued, "I was different around Elena because she had me up on this pedestal. She didn't think I knew but I knew. She made me out to everyone to be this perfect boyfriend. Like we were this storybook romance. I always felt like I had to be what she wanted and sometimes it took a toll on me, but I loved her enough to try. With you, with Lexi and with Caroline, even with Damon, I don't feel like I have to do that. I can just be." Stefan looked down at the table and sighed. "It's not just the whole dating thing with you and Tyler. I figured you'd date someone eventually, even if Elena thought otherwise. But I thought…I never thought it'd be Tyler because I never knew you guys even talked at all. I thought you'd be nervous no matter who it was. This is new territory for you and whenever it happened, I thought I'd have more time to adjust while _you_ adjusted. The thing is with most people, when they start dating, they have to adapt to each other, and it takes time to get comfortable…but you two… When I see you with him, you're comfortable in way that I've never really seen you comfortable before and I don't even know if you even realize it. I thought _we_ were close before but seeing you with him made me think that maybe I was wrong about that too."

Bonnie stared. She couldn't be hearing what she thought she was hearing. "So, you were jealous?" Bonnie asked. Bonnie had to admit that after all the pining she had done she felt at bit vindicated to be able to make Stefan jealous even if it was just over her friendship.

Stefan looked away. "I guess in a way, yeah," he shrugged, "I felt like I was losing my best friend. But you were there for me and Elena throughout our whole relationship start to finish. I want to be there for you too."

Bonnie breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, he knew her doubts before she'd said them and of course he knew exactly what to say to ease them. He was sounding like the old Stefan and for that she was reassured. "Thank you, Stefan," Bonnie stood, her hand still gripping his as she walked around the table and kissed him on the cheek. "You don't have to worry about me and Tyler. We're close because we grew up together. We're that kind of connected you're always going to be with someone you've known a long time. Even if we stopped talking for a while, we…we know each other in a different way because we've been tied together in one way or another for so long. With you…you know me and we're comfortable because we've been hanging out for the past year. Of course, we're still learning each other. Especially since a part of that time we've hung out has been with Elena. But it doesn't mean you're not important to me. It's just different. It's not a competition. Not with me."

Stefan pulled her in for a hug. "I know," he whispered into her ear, "You're caring, loyal, kind and selfless. No one who cares about you ever has to compete for you to give them what they give you and more back."

Bonnie hugged him tighter and felt the urge to cry. "You still get me," Bonnie said.

"Like no one else," Stefan said as he pulled away. "I won't forget that this time." He opened his mouth to say more but stopped as someone cleared their throat.

Bonnie turned around to see Tyler standing behind them. "You ready go?" he asked, and his tone seemed almost hollow.

Bonnie frowned at the tone but nodded. She turned back to Stefan. "I'll see you at my house in an hour," she said.

Stefan nodded and kissed her cheek. "I'll see you later." He nodded at Tyler as he passed but they didn't speak.

Bonnie turned to Tyler. "We cleared the air, so things won't be as awkward later," she smiled.

"Right," Tyler nodded but he didn't return her smile. She held out a hand for him to take and he stared down at it before gesturing to the bags in his hands. "My hands are full."

"Oh," Bonnie said. She felt strangely bereft as she followed him towards the door. Her mind went to the times he'd gone out of his way to shift their books into one hand so that he could have a hand free when they walked the hall together.

Bonnie wondered what was different about before and that moment. She'd been so sure after the game that they would grow closer, but Tyler seemed closed off and then just as they were about to reach the exit, Vicki Donovan appeared.

Unlike when they had been running into one another when Bonnie and Tyler had first started their fake relationship, Vicki looked smug as she stopped in front of them. "Hey B," she said, her tone almost friendly. "I heard about the stunt you pulled at the game. I'm impressed."

Bonnie scowled. Vicki hadn't called her "B" since they were little. She was never nice to Bonnie either, not since they'd left elementary school anyway. "Thanks, I guess," Bonnie said, eyeing Vicki warily. She turned towards Tyler and found him looking down.

"Anyway," Vicki said, "You two have fun hosting Movie Night. Matty said you guys are watching Fight Club. Its Tyler's favorite. It might not be your taste Bonnie, but who knows? Apparently, you're full of surprises." There was something condescending in her tone.

Bonnie opened her mouth to speak but stopped as Tyler spoke first. "We need to leave. Gotta get everything ready. See you, Vick," his tone was less stiff as he gave Vicki a parting nod and Bonnie frowned.

Vicki reached out and placed a hand on Tyler's chest, not minding the bags in his hands or Bonnie's presence. "Remember what I said okay?" Vicki grinned, "Text me later if you need."

Bonnie felt her irritation grow as Tyler smiled. "Thanks, but I'll be fine," he said. Without saying anything else, he walked towards the door.

Bonnie moved to follow and looked back towards Vicki one last time. She was standing with her hand on her hip, her eyes narrowed and never leaving Bonnie and Tyler as they left. Bonnie bit her lip, it looked like she would still have to fight for Tyler after all.

 **:::**

The ride back to Bonnie's house was silent and Bonnie wasn't sure what to do to break the tension as she wasn't sure where it was coming from. When Tyler pulled into her driveway, he got out of the car first and opened the door for Bonnie, like he'd taken to doing. He held out his hand to help her out and Bonnie felt hope as she got out and he pulled her into him slightly. He let her go a moment later though and retrieved the bags from the back seat.

Bonnie followed him inside and held the door for him. They ran into her dad on his way out as they came in and Tyler was polite and friendly as her dad smiled at him and patted him on the back. "Don't worry kids," Rudy grinned, "I'm getting out of your hair. Just wanted to drop off all the baked goods you made over at your Grams. Sheila threw in some of that spinach artichoke dip you like so that you wouldn't be eating all sweets and I made some guacamole. I'm going to a play poker with Jonas and the guys. I'll be back late. I left money on the counter for pizza. I know you have a bigger crowd than usual tonight, so just in case."

Bonnie smiled. "Thanks dad," she said. He kissed her cheek before disappearing out of the door and then Bonnie and Tyler headed towards the kitchen.

Bonnie eyed the guacamole uneasily as she opened the fridge. Rudy had never been the best cook and even the dip wasn't safe. The one her Grams made would have to do. "No one is eating that guacamole," she frowned, "We are not starting our first Movie Night together with someone getting food poisoning."

When Tyler didn't respond Bonnie sighed and turned around. He was shuffling through bags and not looking at her. Bonnie walked up to him and placed a hand over his hand before he could remove another container of food from the bag. He stopped but still didn't look at her.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" Bonnie asked, "Did I do something to make you mad or…?"

"This isn't on you," Tyler muttered, "I'm fine. Even if I'm not I'll put on a good show for all your friends and for Stefan and be the 'picture perfect' boyfriend."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "If you're not fine," Bonnie's eyes narrowed, "I don't care about some stupid show. I care about you. If you're upset, then what's the point of us all getting together and having fun? You're not going to be having fun if something is bothering you and I'm not going to be having fun if I know you're upset. Did Vicki say something to you or something?"

Tyler studied her for a long time, before he shook his head and sighed. "Nothing that wasn't true," he shrugged.

"That's bullshit," Bonnie said fiercely, surprising him from the look on his face, "You said yourself she knows how to get to you. What makes now any different? She has even more of a reason to throw you off your game no than before since she thinks we're a couple."

"It's not just about her," he frowned, "Just leave it." Bonnie watched as his face began to close off and she thought about the first time she had seen it happen. It was the day before things had changed between them. He'd been over her house and mentioned something in passing about people not really being honest about what and who they were and how he didn't think that anyone could trust anyone. When Bonnie had asked him about it his face had closed off and Bonnie had felt empty until he'd taken her hand in his and squeezed it. "I trust _you_ ," he'd said, and Bonnie wanted him to trust her again.

Bonnie took his hand again and gave him a pleading look. "Forget Vicki," she said, "I just…don't shut me out again, alright. You said we could be friends and we've been honest with each other since this whole thing started. So, tell me what's bothering you, even if you don't think that I want to hear it. I want you to be able to do that with me. I don't want to lose you again."

"You're not going to lose me. I meant what I said about wanting us to me friends again." Bonnie felt vulnerable but she felt it was important for him to hear that. Tyler looked at her, his eyes warm and Bonnie felt like he was coming back to her. "I just," he sighed, "I know we were fooling around with the whole Keith and Watts thing, but I can't be him, Bonnie. I can't be Stefan. I'm not this sensitive guy that makes grand romantic gestures or the guy that Elena raved to everyone was the perfect boyfriend. I'm just me. Vicki said you build up this idea for romance in your head from all of these movies that you watch. She thinks I need to be careful with you because I can never live up to any of that and when I don't you're going to find someone who can. Stefan can. I mean, that's why you liked him in the first place, right? I heard you tell Stefan that there wasn't any competition between us, and I get it…he's _the guy_ …and I'm just a stand in because you don't want to hurt Elena or anyone else by telling them the truth."

Bonnie let go of his hand and took his face in her hands instead. "You're an idiot," she said, he opened his mouth to protest but she interrupted him, "I say that as a friend. Yes, I've built up this idea of romance in my head but I'm not naïve enough to believe that when it happens it's going to be like in the movies. I know the difference between reality and fantasy. Do the lines get blurred sometimes, yes, but I always appreciate the people who are here for me in real life over the characters that I love in books or on television, no matter how many hard times some of them have gotten me through."

Bonnie paused, trying to figure out how to word what she was about to say next. She knew what it felt like to be compared to someone else. She'd been compared to Elena all their lives. Caroline was more obvious than her about her insecurities, but Bonnie had her own and she didn't want to breed them in others. Tyler had always been so confident, it was weird to think about him being insecure about anything, but their friendship was so new she was insecure about it as well and even Stefan was insecure about their connection with Tyler around. This was all beginning to be kind of a mess.

"Even Stefan can't live up to the image Elena has of Stefan in her head," Bonnie revealed, "I've known that for a while now and Stefan confirmed that tonight. And, yes, you can be kind of an asshole sometimes, but so can Stefan and that doesn't mean you're worse than him or he's better than you or any of that ridiculous stuff you're thinking right now. I told Stefan it wasn't a competition and it isn't. I care about you both in different ways and for me, me caring about one of you doesn't negate me caring about the other. You're different people, and I see that and I can appreciate you both. Stefan got what I meant, but that's not because he's some sensitive guy that's so in tuned to my feelings, it's because he's spent more time with me recently and you and I aren't there yet, but we can be. Eventually. And you really shouldn't sell yourself short with this whole perfect boyfriend thing. I mean you're doing a pretty good job so far and there hasn't been any grand romantic gestures necessary."

"You're saying Stefan spent all of his time trying to live up to some standard Elena had of him?" At Bonnie's nod he asked, "How do you know that's not what I'm doing? Not just for you. But to prove a point to Vicki. She wanted the perfect boyfriend too. She wanted me to be that for her. Maybe I'm just trying to prove I can be that guy with someone else so that she sees it's just her I can't be it for. That's why we started this, right? Would you want to be my friend still if it turned out to be that and nothing else? With me just being a good actor and not me being a good person or even just good at this whole boyfriend thing, I mean?"

"I know it's not because I know _you_." Bonnie gave him a look and shook her head. " _You are_ a good person." Tyler looked skeptical. "Remember earlier this summer before I tried to run you over with my car," she laughed, "The whole town was at this charity event your mom planned and there was this random freak thunderstorm. My Grams and I were leaving for the night and you ran around trying to convince someone to let you borrow their umbrella and everyone said no because it was coming down so hard and no one wanted to give theirs up. Your mom had already given out the ones you'd had to other guest and you tore through all your closets and couldn't find one. But you told me and my Grams to wait and I rolled my eyes and complained the whole time because I was tired, and I had let Caroline talk me into these ridiculous heels I hated. So, we waited and finally you got this guy to give you his umbrella, but you had to pay him fifty dollars. Then you opened it and you found out it was broken and wouldn't stay up unless you held it open and it was way too small for two people."

"Yeah I remember," Tyler narrowed his eyes, "You laughed at me for a full ten minutes."

Bonnie nodded. "I laughed even harder when you walked my Grams to the car and you held the umbrella with two hands over her head so that it would stay up and you didn't care that it didn't fit you underneath it and you ended up completely soaked through."

"And I still held that same umbrella over _your_ head even though you continued to laugh all the way to your car."

"In my defense we weren't talking then," Bonnie shrugged, "But I thought it was sweet. Why do you think that I made you chicken soup when I found out from your mom you'd caught a summer cold afterwards?"

"Because your Grams made you," Tyler laughed.

Bonnie shook her head. "Nope," she said, "I told your mom that because I knew you'd hold it over my head if you knew I was doing something nice for you just for the sake of doing something nice." Bonnie swallowed, before she continued. "I joke around with Caroline about you being a Sour Patch Kid, but I get why you would be that way given how I've acted and I…I never wanted to admit it, but Caroline was right. You've been nice to me even when I wasn't to you. Even when we weren't friends anymore. Even when I didn't expect it and every time it happened it reminded me of how we were before, and it hurt because all I could do in those moments was think about what I'd lost. What we lost when we stopped being friends. So, I lashed out because it was easier than thinking about never having that with you again. But I never thought you were a bad person. Just annoying and arrogant and kind of an idiot. But sweet and kind and caring when you want to be. And I missed you. Even the parts of you that hated to admit missing."

Tyler smiled and all the stiffness left his frame. "I missed you too, Bennett." When Tyler pulled her into a hug, Bonnie welcomed it. "Just when I think I've got you all figured out, there you go surprising me again."

"I'm not that hard to figure out." Bonnie closed her eyes as Tyler bent down and kissed her on the forehead. It almost made up for the lack of hand holding earlier at the Grill.

"You'd think so," Tyler whispered, "But you are." He cleared his throat and Bonnie saw from his expression that he was going to say something he really didn't want to, but he'd do it for her. "I know you like to say I'm more experienced that you with relationships and I am…with physical stuff. With like what I had with Vicki. Hooking up. But this…this whole boyfriend thing is new territory. I'm figuring it out as I go. I'm probably going to screw up. But I'm trying."

"You don't have to try so hard with me," Bonnie said seriously. She needed the air clear with him as well. She wanted to make sure that he knew that with or without them carrying out their plan, she cared about him and wanted him around just for him. She liked to tease him, but whatever he had meant to her before, he was beginning to mean something to her again.

"Because it's fake," Tyler frowned but nodded, "I know. But still…"

"No," Bonnie said, before his thoughts could take another downward spiral. "Because you being you is enough. It's always been enough for me, Tyler."

When Tyler leaned down and pressed his lips to hers Bonnie didn't mind that they weren't around other people, because it felt nice. In that moment, Bonnie was sure that they both needed some kind of reassurance. It felt good to know that she wasn't alone in the newness of it all, even if it was pretend, and that in many ways, Tyler felt as out to sea as she did. That she would have some of his firsts too. "No one says stuff like that to me," Tyler told her as he pulled away, "Between this and the letter, I'm going to get a pretty big head."

Bonnie took a step back in order to clear her own head. "Well," she said, "I'd better go change before everyone gets here. Clearly your ego doesn't need any more stroking tonight."

"If you're going to change can you spin around for me at least once? I want to see the view from the back one more time. I won't get to see you in uniform until the next game and I need to get my fix while I can get it." His tone was teasing but Bonnie had to wonder after reading his note.

"You're disgusting," she laughed, even as she took off her jacket and spun around in a circle. Bonnie wasn't used to the attention but that didn't mean she didn't appreciate it. Tyler Lockwood, who was hotter than hot thought she was beautiful. Tyler Lockwood thought she looked hot in uniform. Maybe Bonnie was getting a big head too.

"You love it." Tyler smirked, once Bonnie had finished her spin. Bonnie would never admit but she kind of did.

 **:::**

By the time that people started to arrive Bonnie had changed into an oversized off the shoulder black pullover covered in gold stars and a pair of dark blue jean shorts. She was fussing over setting out all of the food in the living room when the doorbell rang.

Bonnie's dad had initially gotten the large 75-inch flat screen that was mounted on their wall for the sake of watching the games during football season. However, when Bonnie had commandeered it for Movie Nights when she hadn't opted to go to Sheila's, her father never minded, game or no game.

Bonnie knew that the Lockwoods had a whole home theater set up at their place. She'd spent many days when she was younger running in between the recliner chairs in the theater room they had set up and having popcorn fights with Tyler. She knew her friends would have fun when they started to switch up the settings, but she was fine in her own home at the moment. She needed the comfort as the changes kept coming and she was trying to keep up as it was.

Matt and Caroline were the first to arrive and they took their customary seat in the comfy chair on the right side of the room, Caroline in Matt's lap. Luka and Hayley were next. Hayley gave a shrug as she handed Bonnie a cheeseball and a box of Ritz crackers. "Luka said we should bring something," she said.

"Thanks," Bonnie laughed as Hayley walked over to sit in the chair opposite Matt and Caroline.

Luka gave Bonnie an apologetic smile. "Don't mind her," he said, "She has no home training. Thanks for inviting us."

"No problem," Bonnie smiled back, "I'm glad you're here. I have a feeling me and you are going to be the buffers this evening."

"Something go down I should know about?" Luka asked raising an eyebrow.

Bonnie shrugged. "I talked to Stefan and Tyler saw and things got weird but then I talked to Tyler so we're good, but I need tonight to go well so can you please be my back up?" Bonnie knew she was begging but she honestly wasn't sure what was going to happen with both Stefan and Tyler in the same room together for an extended period of time.

"I got your back," Luka promised, "It'll be fine." He looked around the room. "Where's Ty anyway?"

Bonnie gestured towards the kitchen. "In the back bringing the rest of the food out."

Luka nodded. "I'll go help," he said. He disappeared and as soon as he did the doorbell rang again.

Bonnie answered the door and found Jeremy, Anna, Stefan and Lexi on the other side. Lexi burst past everyone else to envelope Bonnie in hug. "Hey Lex," Bonnie smiled.

"Bonbon," Lexi grinned as she pulled back, "Or should I say badass. I will never get over Jordan's face when you exposed his dick rash to the public. When Stefan told me exactly what you said I almost pissed myself laughing. I'm so proud."

Bonnie shrugged. She made a show of looking nonchalant. "What can I say? I was feeling epic."

Lexi laughed. "Well," she said, "It's about damn time." She walked into the foyer and the others followed in behind. Bonnie greeted them but was interrupted by Lexi as she hugged Jeremy. "So, where's the new beau? I had to duck out of the game early, so I didn't get to track you down after. Stefan said you were dating now and all I'm saying is I'll believe it when I see it."

Bonnie sighed. The thing about Lexi was, she was good at reading people. From the moment she met Bonnie she had decided that they would be friends on the sole assumption that Bonnie was a good person, that all of those qualities that Stefan had had to tell her Elena had, Bonnie possessed naturally. Kindness, loyalty, selflessness, according to Lexi were all things Bonnie had that went without saying. The day Bonnie had shown up after a drunken party mishap with her Grams' herbal hangover cure Lexi had looked her right in the eye and said, "I knew I was right about you."

Lexi could also always tell when someone was lying. It was a gift. A blessing and curse she called it. Bonnie knew that fooling her friends had been child's play in comparison to fooling Lexi. She was half expecting the blonde to call her and Tyler out before the night was even over.

"He's in the kitchen," Bonnie mumbled. Bonnie tried not to worry as Stefan came up to greet her and give her hug.

As soon as they all settled in the living room Bonnie scuttled into the kitchen. She came upon both Tyler and Luka whispering to one another and she raised a brow as she stood in the doorway. "Everyone's here," Bonnie said.

Luka turned and smiled. "Everyone as in Jeremy?"

Bonnie laughed. "Yes," she said, "and if you're quick you might get the seat next to him. Anna's on one side but the other side is free and well…Lexi is here, and it's first come first serve now that the chairs are all taken."

Luka looked in between Bonnie and Tyler. "You guys got this right?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. So much for him being her buffer. "Go, we'll be fine," she said, shaking her head as he left the kitchen even before the words left her mouth.

Bonnie opened her mouth to warn Tyler about Lexi, something she should've done sooner in retrospect, when suddenly she heard Stefan's voice behind her. "Playing matchmaker this early in the night?" he commented, "Emma Woodhouse would be proud." Bonnie was about to tell him that's exactly what had come to mind when she'd first thought of the idea of Luka and Jeremy together when Stefan kept talking, this time his words directed at Tyler. "I should probably use a reference you'd know, Lockwood. Cher, from Clueless. That work for you?"

Bonnie heard the condescending tone and gave Stefan a look as if to say, " _This is what you look like trying?_ "

Tyler just laughed. "Dude I know who Emma Woodhouse is," he said, "I'm in Advanced Placement Lit. Also, Bonnie made me watch the Kate Beckinsale version of _Emma_ when we were like eight so, no need to dumb it down." Bonnie turned toward Tyler and smiled. He seemed surprisingly calm and determined to be the bigger person in the situation. "Do you really think I'd be allowed to play if I couldn't at the very least stay off academic probation? I'm pretty sure I'm in the top ten of our class GPA wise. You'd think that you wouldn't be one to fall for the whole dumb jock stereotype thing, given that you're… well a jock. But I guess nobody's perfect, right?"

Bonnie's mouth twitched. Alright, so maybe he wasn't going to the bigger person, but she honestly couldn't say at that point that Stefan didn't deserve it.

"Sorry," Stefan said, and Bonnie was once again surprised, "That was kind of a dick move." The admission and the sheepish look on Stefan's face gave Bonnie pause but she smiled just the same. It was nice to see that Stefan actually trying to be civil.

Tyler raised a brow. "You think?" he said, "I know you and Bonnie have been friends for a while, but Bonnie and I are dating now and besides that, me and her go way back. You don't know me as well as you think you do, _clearly_. And if you knew Bonnie all that well, you'd know she wouldn't be with anyone that was as big an asshole as you seem to think I am. So maybe, you could actually get to know me before you pass judgement. For Bonnie if nothing else."

Stefan looked surprised and Bonnie didn't blame him, because she was a bit shocked too. Tyler was being mature about the whole thing. She remembered the whispering between him and Luka as she walked in and wondered if Luka had played his buffer role well after all.

"You're right," Stefan nodded. He eyed Bonnie and Bonnie felt a bit awkward being on the receiving end of both their gazes all at once. "It'll take some time, but I'll do it. _For Bonnie_." There was a deliberate pause, but the moment was broken so quick as Stefan's eyes left hers, Bonnie thought she'd imagined whatever it was she saw when he looked at her. "You need help with anything in here?"

"Luka abandoned us, so you can get the drinks out of the fridge," Tyler said, "Leave that guacamole where it is though. We don't want anyone dying tonight."

Stefan grinned and glanced at Bonnie. "Your dad?" Stefan asked.

"My dad," Bonnie confirmed. She grinned back as Stefan made a face and shook his head. At least some things weren't changing.

"Alright then. Guacamole stays in the fridge. See you guys out there." Stefan left Bonnie and Tyler alone in the kitchen after collecting the drink options.

Bonnie turned to Tyler and immediately rounded the kitchen island to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry about that," she said, sincerely, "Stefan and I talked it out and I thought… Anyway, you handled it well. I just don't know what his deal is lately."

"I do," Tyler said, placing his hands on Bonnie's hips, "But it's fine. For you I can deal with it."

Bonnie wasn't sure how Tyler knew what was going on with Stefan when he didn't know Stefan as well as she did but decided not to point that out. "You shouldn't have to. But thank you."

Tyler leaned forward and pulled her closer. "You know," he licked his lips, "I like these shorts. You could give me another spin to show your appreciation."

"You're such a pervert," Bonnie chastised but she was giggling right after and she forgot to warn Tyler about Lexi as he leaned down even closer to her.

"Yeah, your pervert, well…kind of," he laughed as he kissed her.

It wasn't chaste like the one before, he lingered this time, but it was fine, because there were other people there. Not in the kitchen with them, but still in the house, so it counted. Bonnie stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Tyler's hands moved lower and slipped into the back pockets of her shorts when the kitchen door opened.

"Well no wonder you're hiding him in here," Lexi said as she entered the kitchen, "He's hot."

Bonnie felt her face heat up as she pulled back from the kiss and turned towards Lexi. Tyler wrapped his arms around her from behind and looked at Lexi over Bonnie's shoulder. "And you are?"

"Lexi," she said, "Stefan's best friend." Her eyes narrowed and Bonnie felt Tyler's grip on her tighten.

"Tyler," he introduced one hand leaving Bonnie to stretch out for a handshake and the other remaining on her hip, "Matt's best friend, Luka's wingman, Hayley's punching bag, Jeremy's comic book consultant and Bonnie's boyfriend."

Bonnie wasn't sure that he had ever said it out loud before. Everyone had just accepted they were dating without them having to go around declaring it to the world. Bonnie felt butterflies at hearing him say it out loud. She wasn't sure why, it was stupid really, but she couldn't help it.

"Nice to meet you," Lexi said as she shook his hand. "I've heard things."

"Good or bad?" Tyler asked, and Bonnie wasn't really sure that either she or Tyler wanted to know the answer to that question.

"Depends on who I ask," Lexi answered. From her tone Bonnie knew that she would be spending the rest of the night trying to figure out which things she'd heard about Tyler were true. Once Lexi set her mind on something, there wasn't any talking her out of it.

 **:::**

They chose to watch _Fight Club_ first. Partially because Bonnie wanted to know what all of fuss was about and partially because for once, after the day she had had, she wasn't up for watching a movie that was strictly about romance.

Luka ended up sitting on the floor in front of the couch besides Jeremy, with Anna on Jeremy's other side and Lexi on Luka's other side. Bonnie couldn't even bask in her matchmaking skills when Luka started whispering in Jeremy's ear when he asked what the movie was about because her own seat was likely the least comfortable in the room at that moment.

Somehow, Bonnie had ended up on the couch in between Stefan and Tyler. Luka had failed at being the buffer again and Bonnie was in a position that was even more awkward than she feared it would be. When Elena had been in between Stefan and Bonnie during the times she'd played the third wheel, it hadn't seemed odd, because Bonnie was Elena's best friend and Stefan was her boyfriend and Elena had gotten the best of both worlds. It wasn't until their last movie night when Bonnie had been in the middle where things had gotten weird. Bonnie had thought that that had been bad, but this was far worse.

Being in the middle of the guy she was trying to hide the fact that she had feelings for and the boy that was pretending to be her boyfriend that she was reconnecting with as a friend, was just too weird for words. Normally, on Movie Nights it was with the same people and they watched many of the same movies over and over and they could quote lines and she and Stefan would laugh at the same parts. This was different though, because Bonnie had never seen _Fight Club_ and Tyler's presence seemed to both put Stefan on edge and make Bonnie forget Stefan was even there.

The thing was, even though _Fight Club_ was all violence and man pain and Bonnie had been sure that the only reason she would like it would be because of the copious amounts of scenes with Brad Pitt walking around shirtless, it was actually a good movie. A bit much at certain points but honestly kind of amazing.

Bonnie had felt a grim sort of satisfaction when Angel Face got the shit beat out of him.  
"Is it because you don't like Jared Leto or because you don't like the character?" Tyler asked.

Bonnie shrugged. "Can it be both?"

Bonnie had cringed and gripped Tyler's hand through the chemical burn scene. Bonnie had cried when Bob died. She'd been shocked at the twists and turns. But most of all Bonnie loved the relationship between Marla and Jack. Honestly, she just lived for Helena Bonham Carter and the moment Marla was introduced in dark sunglasses behind a cloud of smoke, mirroring Jack's lie, Bonnie was in love and couldn't take her eyes off her each time she appeared onscreen.

The thing that she loved most about the dynamic between Marla and Jack was that they mirrored each other. They were reflections of one another, and both were just complete and utter disasters. The "Slide" scene quickly became Bonnie's favorite up until she saw the final scene at the end. There was no kiss, but Bonnie had to admit that Tyler was right, it was definitely list worthy.

Bonnie told Tyler as much when it was over, and she realized that somehow she had moved to Tyler's end of the couch completely and was sitting in between his legs as they shared a bowl of popcorn that was sitting in Bonnie lap. Stefan was on the other end of the couch and Bonnie noted he looked uncomfortable and she suspected she knew the reason. As many times as she sat with Elena and Stefan on the same couch, Stefan and Elena had never been so openly affectionate with one another while Bonnie was next to them. Matt and Caroline had always been the touchy-feely ones of the group when it came to the couple thing in public. Honestly speaking though, it hadn't even been intentional on Bonnie's part.

She wasn't sure why but she felt kind of guilty about it until Hayley broke her thoughts by glancing back at Tyler and saying, "A guy that's emotionally unstable, has a bunch of pent up rage and a violent alter ego named _Tyler_ , falls for a quirky girl who calls him on his bullshit and shops at thrift stores. _Of course_ ,this is your favorite movie," and Bonnie laughed so hard she would've fallen off the couch if Tyler hadn't caught her.

"You're supposed to be on my side," he frowned, "You can't laugh at my expense every chance you get."

"Actually," Bonnie said, once her laughter had calmed some, "As your girlfriend I am the only one who has the right to laugh at your expense. If someone else laughs at you I promise to defend your honor."

"That's literally what Hayley just did," Tyler pointed out.

"She was making fun of you and she was amused," Bonnie conceded, but then stated, "She didn't laugh, though."

"Bennett if you think I'm letting you off on a technicality you're wrong," Tyler managed to look mock offended, "I'm calling a foul."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Sports metaphors coming out," she said, holding up her hands in defeat, "I'm in trouble guys."

Bonnie was met with more laughter by everyone around her except Stefan and she shook her head as she stood.

"They're laughing at me and not a peep out of you, Bennett," Tyler said, regaining her attention.

"Well I was going to make you share your chocolate chip cookies, but since they're laughing at you, you only have to share them with me," Bonnie offered.

Tyler tugged gently on the hem of Bonnie's shirt until she leaned in and kissed him. "I was only going to share them with you anyway," he said as she pulled away.

There was a brief intermission in which Bonnie played her eighties playlist in order to get everyone ready for the transition in the films. Bonnie cleared up some of the mess with Lexi, Hayley and Caroline's help. She knew that she would get cornered in the kitchen even before the three followed her there.

Bonnie tried to ignore them as she placed a few dishes in the sink and wasn't surprised when Lexi broke the silence first. "So," she said, "I was admittedly skeptical about this whole boyfriend thing because well you've never dated anyone before and I will never think anyone is good enough for you but…it's clear this Tyler is completely gone over you and Stefan said you guys were comfortable with each other because he knew you before. But it's not just you being comfortable. You're happy. Like _really_ happy."

Bonnie stopped what she was doing and turned to Lexi and eyed her with wide eyes. Lexi had bought their act. They must have been better than Bonnie thought, though they weren't actually consciously trying at the moment or at least Bonnie wasn't, so perhaps Lexi was picking up on her and Tyler's closeness from before.

However, Bonnie was more surprised about the happy comment. Bonnie hadn't exactly been unhappy for the last year or so. More along the lines of quietly pining. But she supposed that Lexi was right. She smiled. "I guess I am," she said.

"Tyler is too," Hayley said, "I remember how miserable he was when you guys stopped being friends before. The letters he wrote me about how much he missed you and how sorry he was he screwed things up. It's nice to see him happy you know. Just don't hurt him because then I'd have to kill you."

Bonnie knew there was some seriousness in Hayley's tone though she thought the threat was unnecessary. She kind of wanted to ask more about the letters that Tyler had written her but stopped herself. Reassuring Hayley that she wouldn't hurt Tyler was more important, they didn't know this was all fake and so Bonnie could entertain Hayley at least this once. "I wouldn't," Bonnie said, and she was being sincere even if she didn't think the moment warranted Hayley's threat. "Not on purpose."

"We know Bonnie," Caroline sighed, "We just…no matter what happens someone is going to get hurt so you should probably be prepared for that alright?"

Bonnie looked in between the three, not sure of what they meant. Things weren't ideal, but she was handling it better than she thought she would. She'd talked to both Stefan and Tyler and from their conversation before Stefan and Tyler were both trying to be civil, even if Stefan wasn't completely comfortable with the situation yet. He'd get over it in time and he'd see that Bonnie could be friends with them both and they'd be fine. She and Tyler would fake their breakup and now that they were getting into the habit of talking things out, she was sure their friendship would still stand. No one had to get hurt. Bonnie didn't want anyone to get hurt. If she played her cards right everything would be fine.

"You guys worry too much," Bonnie said, trying to make her tone sound reassuring, "Everything will be fine. You'll see."

Before anyone could respond, the music from the other room caught Bonnie's attention. It was, "She Loves Me" by Stephen Duffy. Which was one of Bonnie's favorite songs from one of her favorite movie scenes. That wouldn't have been a problem ordinarily, but Bonnie had just reenacted that scene with Tyler and maybe it had resulted in one of the best kisses she had ever had. Which, now that she thought about it, all of her best kisses belonged to Tyler, because really _all_ of her kisses belonged to Tyler.

"Earth to Bonnie," Caroline said, which meant she had been trying to get Bonnie's attention, which meant she had probably zoned out, "Are you blushing? Why are you blushing?"

Bonnie blinked. "No reason. I just, have to turn off the music. Yeah, the music. Excuse me."

"But you love this song," Caroline started but Bonnie was already running into the living room and jumping over the people still sitting on the floor to get to where her phone was sitting on the couch.

Bonnie had almost reached it but Tyler grabbed it first, standing and holding the phone above his head. There was a teasing smile on his lips as he looked down at her. "Do you need your phone for something?"

Bonnie frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "The song. Turn it off."

"You love this song," Tyler laughed. Bonnie opened her mouth to protest when he wrapped his arm around her waist. "It's _our_ song."

Bonnie bit her lip trying and failing to hide her embarrassment. " _Tyler."_

"Since when do you guys have song?" Matt asked.

Caroline raised an eyebrow. "Right and _the song_ at that. One of Bonnie's favorite songs and the song from Bonnie's favorite kiss scene."

Tyler didn't get a chance to respond as Bonnie cut in. "First rule of Fight Club."

Laughing Tyler gave Bonnie back her phone. "You do not talk about Fight Club," he responded.

"Now that she gets that reference you guys are going to be super obnoxious about this whole 'we' people only secrets thing, aren't you?" Matt said shaking his head.

"Yeah we are." Both Tyler and Bonnie answered at once. Bonnie tried not to dwell on the fact that Tyler had likely been talking to Matt about their "relationship" as he was aware of more than she thought he was clearly. Still it made sense in theory. Matt was Tyler's best friend and it'd be weird if he _didn't_ talk to him about Bonnie. Especially since Vicki was Matt's sister and selling their relationship to her was a part of their act.

Bonnie's thoughts were interrupted when Stefan spoke. "Stop giving her a hard time. Besides, don't we have another movie to watch?" He looked more irritated than Bonnie felt but she was at the very least glad to have him come to her defense against the teasing.

Bonnie cut the song off and set her phone down on the table. "Yes, we do," she said, "And thank you."

Stefan nodded and Bonnie watched as Lexi walked over and squeezed Stefan's shoulder. A look passed between them that Bonnie didn't understand before they all took the seats that they had before.

This time Bonnie was determined to stay in the middle as the _Sixteen Candles_ started. It was awkward enough to be stuck in between Stefan and Tyler without her somehow ending up half in Tyler's lap.

Watching the movie became weird in another way, however. This movie was one that had been played a movie night many times before which meant that this time around there were lines that were quoted and laughing obnoxiously at the same parts they always did. Which meant, that this time around it was Stefan's orbit Bonnie had drifted into unintentionally.

She didn't notice until Tyler's arm came around her shoulder and he pulled her into his side. "Isn't the Long Duk Dong character like really racist?" He asked, casually. He tried to make the gesture seem less territorial than it was.

She couldn't really blame him as she was playing the role of his girlfriend which meant that she shouldn't giggling with Stefan like an idiot at a movie they'd seen a hundred times in front of everyone.

"Extremely, racist," she answered.

"So why do we like this movie again?" Tyler asked, pointedly.

When he tugged her closer, Bonnie complied, wrapping her own arms around his middle. "Jake Ryan," she and Carolyn said at the same time, their tones dreamy.

Tyler rolled his eyes. "I'm like way hotter than that guy."

Hayley made a scoffing noise from her seat on the floor. "Damaged sensitive jock who is bogged down by his popularity and everyone's expectations and misconceptions of him who's kind of an asshole at times, comes from a rich family and dumps his disaster girlfriend who parties too much to date the sweet girl who thinks she's invisible and fades into the background only to realize he saw her and liked her the whole time. That guy is literally _you_ in movie form." She turned and her eyes narrowed at Bonnie. "No wonder _you_ like this movie." She smirked pointing in Bonnie's direction.

"Oh my God," Caroline laughed, "I never thought about it that way but, that is so true. Tyler is your Jake Ryan. Aww."

Bonnie tried and failed to hide her embarrassment. She hadn't thought about it that way either but in a way she guessed they were right. She was directing her own romantic comedy and had somehow type-casted Tyler into Jake Ryan's role.

Caroline opened her mouth, like to tease Bonnie some more but was met by a pillow in the face. One flew and hit Hayley a moment later. Tyler had launched in attack on them both and had managed to do so without moving his arm from around Bonnie's shoulders and he threw the pillows with his free hand. "Stop teasing my girlfriend."

Hayley threw the pillow back at him but missed. It flew over his head and onto the floor behind the couch. He kissed the top of Bonnie's head uncaring. "See Bennett," he said, "that's how you come to someone's defense."

"My hero," Bonnie replied sarcastically but still leaned up a kissed his cheek.

Bonnie watched as Stefan shifted away from them on the couch and she glanced at Luka, giving him a pleading look, hoping he would get her sign to change the subject.

"So, Ty," Luka said, "You convince Bonnie to go to your party at the Swimming Hole yet?"

"This party," Jeremy said, turning to Luka fully. "Are you going?"

Luka nodded. "Yeah, are you?"

Jeremy grinned. "I am, if you are."

Bonnie couldn't even celebrate her matchmaking skills because she was too confused as to what they were talking about. She frowned and looked up at Tyler. "What party?"

"You're having a party and didn't tell your girlfriend, Lockwood?" Stefan asked, giving Tyler a sideways glance. "She doesn't really do, parties, I know. But at least you could've asked her."

Tyler tensed and Bonnie ran a hand down his arm to keep his attention on her. The last thing she needed was an argument breaking out. His grip around Bonnie tightened as he spoke. "I _know_ you don't usually like going to parties," he said, "That's why I wanted to wait and ease you into the idea. It's tomorrow night. It's going to be one of the last warm days before the fall hits and I thought it'd be fun."

"Since you literally waited until the last minute to ask you're going to have to do better than that to convince me," Bonnie said. Contractually she was obligated to attend (which was likely why Tyler didn't bother asking sooner in the first place), but the others didn't know that and if she agreed too readily they would likely get suspicious.

Bonnie heard someone's phone ring but ignored it as Tyler spoke. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. There's one of those swinging ropes right. We can do that scene from _The Notebook_."

Bonnie sat up slightly from where she was leaning slightly against his chest. "The, 'Get in the water!' scene?" She asked, her excitement likely evident in spite of her attempt to play it cool.

"The, 'Get in the water!' scene," Tyler nodded, "And I may have been on Etsy a week before school started when I decided to have the party in the first place. And I may I have ordered a replica of Allie's swimsuit in your size in hopes that it would convince you to come because again…I _know_ you don't usually go to parties."

The last he said with a pointed look at Stefan but ignored it in favor of asking, "The purple one piece from the 'Get in the water!' scene or the red two piece from , 'If you're a bird, I'm a bird'."

"Red is your favorite color, so what do you think? Besides would I rather see you in a two piece or a one piece?"

Bonnie squealed because he had picked the right one and she kissed him because she was excited. "You're a pervert by the way," she said as she pulled back but then a thought occurred to her and she said, "A week before school started? We weren't even dating then." They weren't even talking then. And how had he managed to pick the one she would have chosen for herself?

Tyler shrugged. "I was going to give it Caroline and tell her to use it to convince you to come to the party like I did when I bought those replica witch costumes from _Practical Magic_ so you two could dress as the Owens sisters from the scene at the end when they jumped off the roof with the umbrellas, when she was afraid you wouldn't come to my Halloween party last year."

Bonnie stared. It hadn't just been the dresses from _Practical Magic_ , it'd been the big witch hats that tied around the chin, the white and read striped tights, and the black Mary Jane heels, that Bonnie knew for a fact were a pain to find. Caroline had simply said "Etsy," when Bonnie has asked where the costumes had come from. She'd never thought to press any further. "You what? Why would you do that?"

This time Tyler leaned down to kiss her, soft and sweet. "Does that answer your question?"

It didn't. But it had sufficiently distracted Bonnie from her confusion.

"I guess you're more persuasive than I realized, Lockwood." Stefan said and he sounded sad, resigned almost.

"Nah," Tyler said, "I just know my girlfriend."

The tension was thick, and Bonnie turned to Tyler again, determined to act as her own buffer. "In any case, thank you. Also, yes, I'll go to your stupid party. So, when do I get to see the swimsuit?"

"As soon as you promise to let me see you twirl in it." Tyler responded.

"Such a perv," Bonnie laughed.

He kissed her again, this time lingering. But it was alright because they had an audience.

"Oh my God, you guys really are dating! I can't believe it." A familiar voice that Bonnie hadn't heard in a while interrupted.

Bonnie stilled and broke the kiss. She knew that voice. She'd heard it all her life. "Elena?"

She turned and saw Jeremy holding his phone in the air. There Elena was on screen staring back at her. "She called while you guys were talking but I didn't want to interrupt." Jeremy said.

Bonnie looked from Jeremy to Luka and glared. He was the worse buffer ever.

Jeremy handed Bonnie his phone. Reluctantly she took. "Hi Elena," she said. "What's up, Gilbert?" Tyler said over her shoulder.

Elena beamed at them and Bonnie bit her lip. "You guys have to tell me everything!"

 _ **End Notes: As always thanks for reading! So next update, being abroad is not all it is cracked up to be for Elena. Vicki tries to cause more trouble at the party at the swimming hole. See you all next time! Reviews are love!**_


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